


Trap and Release

by brightephemera



Series: Vail!verse [4]
Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, One instance of Gore, Post-Canon, Souls, Wolf Friends, creating an afterlife, misbehaving gods, strangers in dreams, the dog doesn't die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:41:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 67,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26072062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightephemera/pseuds/brightephemera
Summary: Vailond Dugauer has faced cult, faction, and gods and come out on top. When a mysterious pillar of power appears in the ruins of her castle, she must sort out how to rebuild what the gods have abandoned. The soul of every kith—and the lives of her friends—depend on her answers.
Relationships: Aloth Corfiser/The Watcher
Series: Vail!verse [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1895248
Comments: 28
Kudos: 9





	1. Prisons and Arrivals

_Eleven gods in Eora. Vailond Dugauer talked more than she wanted to with them._

_But all that’s changing. The Wheel they used to control the reincarnation of kith (that is any of the five arguably intelligent races)—the Wheel they used was broken by one of their own going rogue. No Wheel, no direction for the souls of the dead, no guidance back to the next life on Eora. One big logjam instead of the cycle of life._

_Vailond was the person who said she wanted kith to rebuild it without help from those idiot gods. Vailond was the person who said it, and they took her at her word._

*

Magran, lady of trials by fire  
Respect can be earned through a war’s reddened ire  
\- Dyrwoodan children’s song 

*

In the end, Vailond did buy a feather mattress for her quarters on board the _Defiant_. She was not fully confident in keeping Aloth’s interest if she didn’t at least try to make him comfortable. Tyrhos and his pup the little wolf Malda loved the luxury, but Vailond managed to get them to accept a nest of soft blankets beside the bed. On some fine nights sire and pup went up on deck to watch the lights on the horizon, which suited Vailond and Aloth just fine.

Together. Vailond and Aloth were surprised, as if after six delirious months they weren’t entirely sure this change in the nature of their relationship had happened, this step into a different current. But they slept without the nightmares of old, and when Vailond woke in the night Aloth was there. She had notched the trap door’s frame, not as a trophy but as a personal devotion. She outstripped her longest previous steady relationship in her long life within weeks.

Vailond peered blearily at the messenger. “ _What_.”

“Ma’am?” The youth on the rainy deck outside swallowed hard. “Please, I don’t even know what’s in that letter.”

Vailond read it again. “Aloth?” He would make this make sense.

“Vail?” Aloth sat up, his body looking pale in the watery light from door and windows. “What’s wrong?”

“Get something to eat,” said Vailond to the messenger. She gripped the letter. “Just around this cabin, down the stairs, first left.”

“Thank you, ma’am. Do you have a response, ma’am?”

“I will,” said Vailond. “I surely will.”

*

“I don’t understand this at all,” said Aloth.

“Adra doesn’t grow that fast,” said Vailond. The material was known all over Eora, growing slowly out of the ground, forming mystical and historical touchstones. You could harvest it, carve it, craft it. The rogue god Eothas’ physical form had been a giant adra statue. “But I trust the Steward, and if she says a new adra pillar grew up where Eothas’ statue climbed out…”

“Then I believe her,” said Aloth. “And Caed Nua is in danger with this in its front yard. I confess I’ve never heard of this happening before.”

“The gods,” said Vailond, “should stick to being ordinary assholes like they started.” She had picked up her trusty crossbow. Now she ran her fingertips over the mechanism, over and over. “D’you think they’re doing this to screw me specifically? They must have, why else pick Caed Nua?”

“Perhaps it is a gift from a friendly god,” Aloth mused. “Part of the puzzle of how to replace the Wheel of incarnation.”

“Eothas could just have not smashed the first one,” grumbled Vailond.

“But he did smash it. And we have roughly one generation in which to figure out its replacement before the cycle of souls slows to a stop and kith children are once again born without souls.”

“Every single time you say that, I wish you would say anything else.”

“I am sorry.”

“But this is reality. I know. We have to figure out what this is about. We have to return to Caed Nua. Hey, maybe I can just give it a nice crossbow bolt and this’ll be over.”

“Do you really want to go?” said Aloth. “These months on board…you’re as happy as I’ve ever seen you. Not just…I would claim credit, but it isn’t just me. You thrive on the _Defiant_.”

“A lot of it is you.” She never used to be this sappy, but it seemed to make him happy. “Edér and Serafen were right. I got out on the ocean, and…I’m not sure I’ll ever leave again. Does that make sense?”

“Taken literally I hope not. You should be free to go where you wish.”

“I know. But the _Defiant_ …it took us through everything. Statue-Eothas stomping down to the ocean trying to destroy the Wheel. Storms. God-meetings. And six months of total peace.” She squeezed his hand. “it’s more than a boat by now.”

“We can stay.”

She kept his hand and thought maybe a smile would be brave. “No, we can’t. The gods are spewing adra and someone’s got to see whether that has to do with the new Wheel.”

“It doesn’t have to be a Wheel.”

“Do you know how else to do it?”

Aloth let out a breath. “Not yet.”

“I’m waking Worthless Idiot. We need a new course now.”

“I do wish the imp could take another name…”

“We don’t all pick our labels. Here’s your Watcher, springing into action.”

*

Bearn Vessit sat on a stump outside the Hasongo house. It wasn’t the stone architecture where the Rauataians had rebuilt their fort around the adra lighthouse. And it wasn’t the sea-reed roofing of the Huana who had come to cultivate the ocean under that lighthouse’s rays. It was a plain two-room house of wood, shingles above, snug furniture within. The young man had finished splitting rails for tomorrow’s fencing around the lower field. His foster father Edér was just now coming up from the nets carrying a bucket of fish in one meaty hand and a clay pipe in the other.

“Bearn,” he said comfortably.

“Edér.” “Dad” had been voted too weird.

“I’ll have something on the table in ten minutes.” That was how it went. They shared chores, only really being uneven when Bearn lacked the size and strength to do some task Edér could shrug into.

Bearn pulled the little adra cube from his pocket. The worst mistake of his life had almost killed him outside Neketaka, but since then he had met the animancers of the city, and stayed in touch. Every now and again the animancers he had met sent him something.

He peered through it and the window at Edér. The cube lit up in purply red. He couldn’t read Edér’s soul like a Watcher would, but he saw the color and texture, not exactly like anybody else’s. Someone was coming up the beaten way. Bearn swung the cube around to look at her.

And fell back off his stump. He yelled without words and without meaning to.

Edér ran out with a knife stinking of fish guts. “What is it? It—oh. Oh, I see.”

Bearn remembered Vailond Dugauer, the red-haired elf with a feral leather fashion sense. Vailond had witnessed his miserable cult career and saved his life at the end of the confrontation. Through the soulview glass she looked like the sun’s radiance brought to Eora. She looked like he had always imagined Eothas would, given just such a filter.

Consideration and Effort burst from their digging in the yard and raced to meet a huge old wolf and a considerably younger—more of a peer—wolf who had one blue eye and one yellow. The four of them made a fearsome racket. Bearn listened closely, but nobody put a distressed whine or threatening growl into the mix. Even the huge-toothed play bites were taken with only friendly whuffs and barks.

Vailond greeted Consideration and Effort with rough ear scratches, gave the other young wolf a scratch so as not to play favorites (Bearn could tell), then stood.

“Edér,” she called in her brusque tone. “I thought you moved out of Gilded Vale.”

Edér set the knife carefully on the stump Bearn had vacated. “I missed it so much, I thought I would at least put my house back on the map. C’mere, Tyrhos, you old rascal!” The old wolf moved a little stiffly, but he sniffed Edér and shoved his head under Edér’s hand. “And Malda, I think my boys are growing just a little faster.” He shot a teasing look at Vailond before returning his attention to the jumping wolf. “Who’s a good girl? Vail ever tell you that?”

“Too much.” Vailond half smiled and turned to Bearn.

“Ma’am,” he said, as Edér would surely let him know if he was being disrespectful.

The last time they’d had any serious interaction she had been sticking her fingers down his throat to fetch up the poison. She looked about as comfortable with this as he felt. “You’re looking…well. Uh, this one isn’t running you too hard, is he?”

“Only when there’s something more to build,” he said, pointing at the fence rails.

“He left Caed Nua to the paid help. Nice to have the extra hands.” She looked around. Bearn hurriedly pocketed his cube. It seemed silly in front of a real Watcher. She unslung a considerable waterskin and raised it.

Edér reached to touch it. “Put that thing down. Come inside. The spring water here’s really something. Fewer dead people dripping in it, I reckon.”

Vailond smiled. She was pretty when she did that, at least, as pretty as anybody her age could be. He wondered what that age was. Elf. Could be anything.

They all three of them went in; the three younger wolves were tussling outside while Tyrhos presided. Edér left the door open and took a homemade wooden cup to scoop Vailond some water. “Bearn, thank you,” he said, a plain dismissal.

“Ma’am,” said Bearn, and walked out, and walked around to the best crack between walls. He and Edér had reached a balance some time ago, where one chink in the house was allowed and they wouldn’t go fixing/re-cutting around each other all the time. Edér always knew when something had been snuck into that house.

“He’s sedate,” came Vailond’s voice.

“Oh, he’s just outside,” said Edér. “After a while I didn’t see much point to keeping things from him. Have some….”

“Is that an orange!?”

“Trader passes through here through a lot of places. I thought you might like it.”

“You didn’t get this for me.”

“Didn’t I?” He laughed. “I always have one around. Next crisis, I knew it’d be you knocking on my door. So how long do we have?”

“For what?”

“Whatever you came here for. How long before it gets worse?”

“Well, we do have the one-generation timer.”

“Right. Got the animancers working that?”

“Here and there. Did Bearn have a soulview lens?”

“Yeah. He likes it, and it’s something an animancer can really physically point to. He can tell I have a soul, which is a relief after all this time, so….” A pause.

“There’s been an adra eruption. At Caed Nua.”

A chair bumped. “How big? Was anyone hurt? Any god take responsibility? Are you all right? Is Aloth all right? You just know he’d be there….”

“Aloth is with me. He’s running some errands on the island. We’re all right. It came out where Eothas crawled out. I’ve had people working on restoring the fortress but everyone was under orders to stay away from that hole. I don’t know much else. I just know that one of the gods just threw his or her hat in the ring again, and it’s got something to do with the animancy research we’d started there.”

“You sure someone didn’t just accidentally discover an ancient rock-summoning art?”

“Ancient as the Engwithans who made the gods.” Because the gods weren’t gods. They were constructs from an ancient civilization, giant fakes, and now their problems were hers. “That’s the only conclusion I have.”

Bearn could not see their faces. He could tell that their cadences were lining up, their responses plainly the result of cooperation. They talked like they’d known each other forever, and Bearn had never heard that in six months’ watching his foster father talk with Hasongo islanders.

Edér went on. “What’s the plan?”

“I’m going back to Caed Nua, making sure it’s built up properly. I don’t care how many times gods step on it, I _will_ have it back.” Bearn hadn’t really noticed the flatness of Vailond’s voice until it curled into emotion. “Maybe a Watcher just has to verify that it’s there. Or maybe I have to deal with a river of souls outside my window. I don’t seriously expect that this will be a one and done, sleep in our cozy beds and go home well-fed.”

“No. You ever find one of those adventures, feel free to invite me.”

“Edér….” A sigh. A pause. “I’m calling on you because I don’t know what we’re up against but every time my relationship to all that shit gets deeper, you’re there. Say the right word and I leave, and you have your life like you deserve. Say the wrong word and, well, the _Defiant_ is open to you ‘til it sets sail in the morning.”

“Ah. About that.”

“Don’t worry about it. It was really nice to see you.”

“I’ve got a fence to put up tomorrow morning. You come by an hour after noon and offer me someplace soft to lie down? I’ll take the _Defiant_.”

“But Bearn?”

“Got two soft places to lie down? He wants to be an animancer, Vail. Eothas hurt a lot of people last year but he also set us on a path, and if the gods won’t help us understand that path, animancy will have to.”

“Do you believe that?”

“I don’t rightly know. And Bearn knows I don’t rightly know. But I’m not going to fight him.” A silence. “You take him to an adra tower bigger’n ours and his head might explode. In a nice way.”

“I don’t, um. I…he…that is, subjects we have in common….”

“He’s a teenager, not an alien.”

“Right. You’ll be there to talk to him.”

“Only if you convince me teenagers don’t worry you.” Edér chuckled. “Did you say Aloth is on the island? Bring him up here so’s I can feed all three of you at once.”

“He didn’t want to be a third wheel.”

“Takes three legs to stand up a cookpot. You, me, and him? Team Gilded Vale? I don’t see how it gets better’n that. And Bearn will be happy to see him. Go on, I’ll get something on the fire.”

“You know there’s never been anybody like you.”

“I might’ve stepped on the mold on the way out. That’s the kind of thing that happens.”

Her chuckle was quiet and nasal. “I’ll be right back up. Would you like me to leave the wolves?”

“Would I ever!”

*

Edér didn’t move from the stove. “Aloth! Welcome! Got a question for ya.”

“Oh?” Aloth hadn’t finished brushing the road’s dust from his sleeve. Now he looked up, ready to tense.

“Our Watcher. Happiest we’ve ever seen her?”

Vailond sat in the corner. She felt like her face would fall off if she smiled any more at seeing all three of them (plus a kid) together.

Aloth studied her face. He relaxed into a smile. “The happiest I’ve ever seen her with company.” He blinked and looked up at Edér. “Gilded Vale the Second seems to be treating you well. Bearn. You may not remember me.”

“You were here on Hasongo,” said Bearn. “I remember, you killed a lot of naga.”

“For a little while there everyone did,” said Edér. Vailond shot him a look. She had panicked in the face of those loathsome monsters and had sat most of the battle out. It was not her best moment.

Edér and Aloth did not bring this up. She knew there was a reason she loved them.

“Hope you don’t mind fish with your bread,” said Edér. “I’m trying to bring up steak but it’ll be a few years, ‘less someone invents a way to peel meat off a bull while he’s still grazing.”

“So we can expect an Edér campfire special?” Aloth said innocently. They had taken cooking in turns, once, long ago. Travel on the road would do that.

“It’s a change from raw squirrel,” said Edér.

“I cooked the hell out of that squirrel,” Vailond said coolly. “All flavor. Gone.”

“It was still _bleeding_ ,” said Aloth.

“Tastelessly,” said Vailond, not bothering to deny.

The stars were out by the time everyone had their fill. Vailond had shoveled all she could reach into her mouth then watched the others eat; Aloth picked a bit but Edér and Bearn ate like they’d been working all day.

“Want a hand with the fence?” said Vailond as they were finishing up. Aloth had finished earlier and spent the time studying some secret wisdom out of the simple room.

“You hate fences,” said Edér.

“Here? Civilization on one side, civilization on the other.” She shrugged. “I can help.”

“Sleep first,” groaned Bearn. “Uh, please.”

*

In the morning, Edér asked a Huana neighbor to mind the place. The group set up the lower fence in under an hour. And everyone boarded the _Defiant_. Team Gilded Vale was on the move.

*

Vailond checked on everybody on the _Defiant_. Everybody. Deckhands, cannoneers, swabbies, everybody.

They had dropped off unnecessary cargo at Hasongo. The _Defiant_ would run lean until it reached Defiance Bay.

Vailond thought about Serafen. If anyone were to take over the _Defiant_ in Vailond’s absence, it should be him. He had served as mate through the darkest days. But he’d gotten bored with her and moved on. The rest of her crew…how many wanted that responsibility? Vailond had never made the role of captain look glamorous.

“You could put her on a wagon and take her with you,” said Eld Engrim. The old salt eyed her and grinned. “’Twould be a braw wagon, at that.”

“Take her,” she said. “Make me some good stories.”

“And if the old blue terror comes alongside?”

“Bring him on board and feed him. You know he can’t possibly be doing better than Irrena for cooking.” Yes, she would want Serafen at the helm. But if this stupid chore allowed her to go back to the Deadfire Archipelago, she didn’t want to have to move Serafen aside to take the _Defiant_ back. There were only so many job changes you could tolerate for an old lover.

Last year. Did that qualify as ‘old’? Or was it the emotional distance that mattered? She had filled her mind completely with Aloth. For Serafen, she just hoped he was happy, and that he didn’t need her to get there.

The wind and the waves played together, and Vailond leaned forward toward Defiance Bay.

*

Pallegina knew enough not to distract herself while on watch. The Duc Aleppo had granted the Vailian Republics’ animancers a great brownstone estate for their research, and Pallegina, not anxious to study or be studied, kept a shift on guard duty.

In her years of service to the Republics she had always stood out, being a feather-haired godlike. These days there was also the fact that she had sailed amid the luminous adra with the captain of the _Defiant_. People slowed, people whispered. Over time, her deeds as well as her birth made her conspicuous.

A runner carrying a big cream envelope separated herself from the crowd and gave Pallegina a military salute. “Ma’am. Vailond has returned to Caed Nua. There’s been a luminous adra…eruption.”

Well, didn’t that just sound typical. “How much was destroyed?”

“None, ma’am. It filled in where the adra statue was.”

“Interesting. Does she know who sent it?”

“No.”

“The gods are in play again. Did we not convince them at Ukaizo?”

“Ma’am?”

“Nothing. Do you have my new orders?”

“Ac. Here, ma’am. You don’t—you don’t think there’s going to be trouble? With her.”

“On the contrary. I expect it.”

She went inside first. The main development of the Vailian animancy research was not unlike the Brackenbury Sanitarium in Defiance Bay, a place of neatly locked doors and adjacent research offices. Pallegina looked neither to the left nor to the right on her way to Giacolo’s office.

“Giacolo.”

“Pallegina.” The animancer, middle-aged and still sharp as a knife, smiled welcome. “What word from the outside world?”

“Watcher Vailond is trying a new tack. With her own luminous adra.”

“Fascinating. Can she help us?”

“Our spies will know if she can. No, the Wheel on the Water is our best chance. She may not understand that. And I cannot allow someone who fails to understand the stakes to control this project.”

“Does she misunderstand the stakes?”

“She will attend to her friends. I cannot afford that luxury.”

Giacolo peered over his glasses. “Is that so, my friend?”

Pallegina smiled. “A Vailian knows the meaning of responsibility. We will keep our spies in her operation. If it truly seems like her resources can benefit us, I will reveal myself.”

“How unsentimental.”

“Giacolo. In the workplace I cannot afford sentiment.”

“And yet…mine is all I do. Come, would you like to eat before my next purification comes up?”

“I must stand watch until the third hour. Can you wait?”

“Of course. Carry on.”

*

Maia opened the black envelope. The spymaster Atsura’s people could be really dramatic when they wanted to be.

Three minutes later she was at Atsura’s door, deep within the Brass Citadel.

“Come,” came his calm honeyed voice. Atsura could convince a frightened child that a thunderstorm was just the clouds playing. That is, if he ever spoke to children. “Ah. You read that.”

“Three and a half times. Luminous adra? Outside the Deadfire?”

“And in the front yard of our favorite elf. What do you suppose she’ll do with it?”

“Whatever her boyfriend wants,” said Maia. “She’s strong-willed when it suits her, but if she finally got together with Aloth, he’ll be the one calling the shots.” Aloth was too smart for that not to be true.

“An interesting assessment. What do you think he wants to do with a giant adra pillar?”

“What else?” said Maia. “Replace the gods.”

“I see. A goal that does not benefit us.”

“Are we going to go up against the Vailians in making a new Wheel?”

“No, I was thinking of a more permanent approach.” Atsura leaned toward her. “Have you ever tried killing a god?”

“Intentionally? Never.”

“Ah. We have someone who did. He succeeded.”

Maia frowned. “But Eothas killed himself…oh. This time. Last time he was killed. You have one of the Dozens?”

“They all died. The priests that dedicated them, though…”

“Dedicated them? What does that mean?”

“It means he must have been close to the engineers of the Godhammer. The thing that killed Eothas the first time. He must have seen it.”

“And you think he can build one?”

“I think he has a vested interest in doing so. You see, he was a priest, Maia, a loyal priest of Magran.”

“We all know how she treats her faithful,” grumbled Maia.

“And he has no protection, no means of striking back. At her whim he would have died…but he turned his back on her. He wants nothing but revenge. You and I will give him a chance at that revenge. At killing the gods over again. With them out of the way kith can finally united behind Rauatai and rebuild the world.”

“Do you ever not have these visions when you see the pieces shift?”

Atsura touched his wispy beard as though thinking. “No. Come with me.”

The gold cells, so named for their rarity and value, lay directly beneath Atsura’s office in the Brass Citadel. Atsura held a lamp before him as they passed down the barred hallway.

In the center of the row, in the depths of the fort, there lay a rugged human in filthy, scorched robes. He lay splayed out on the stone floor. He twitched and moaned when the lamp’s light fell on him.

Then, faster than a feral rat, he was on his hands and knees, staring at Maia with a bulging eye. “I was promised food,” he said in a rough, breathy voice. “Unless you mean me to devour a woman first.” He leered. “I can oblige.”

“The reason I am bringing you here,” Atsura said conversationally, “is that you have a friend in common.”

Maia looked at the ragged man. “Vailond.”

“The _Watcher_ ,” he said. “Magran would have her for a slut if she weren’t so difficult to track. What do you imagine you know of the Watcher?”

“What do you know about Magran?”

“Only what twenty years’ devotion can tell you.”

“I’ll leave you to it,” said Atsura. And, in Rauatai, “Get this man talking about the Godhammer.”

Well, an assignment was an assignment. “Start with your name?” she said.

“Abandoned, lost, trampled. So few of them cling to my sandals. You are a friend of the Watcher? You may call me…Durance.”

*

Vailond saw Ydwin standing under the eastern barbican, shaded from the blistering sun. Vailond noted that she had changed her ascot and coat for a tucked-in blouse that had a crimson-edged V-neck. The ascot had probably near killed her in this heat. Ydwin the scholar had separated her own soul to avoid the inconveniences of death. It was nice to know she did still experience physical discomforts. Made her seem more ordinary.

Tyrhos stopped and growled when the wind changed. “Tyrhos?” said Vailond. “What is it?”

Tyrhos surged forward and galloped, snarling, at Ydwin.

“Tyrhos, no! Stop!” Vailond sprinted after him. “No, Ydwin is a friend. She’s a friend.” He didn’t know that. Their time on the _Defiant_ hadn’t overlapped. He stopped just close enough to lunge at the white-haired elf’s throat. “Stop it, Tyrhos. Friend. See? Friend.”

“I’m not sure he’s listening,” Ydwin said through bloodless lips.

“He’s sensitive to disjointed souls,” said Vailond.

“As to someone who has severed her soul from the Wheel and the In-Between,” Ydwin said briskly. “Will he respect your ban?”

“Yes. He will.” Vailond stroked Tyrhos’s head. “I know, I know. She’s a good friend to us.” Others were approaching. Vailond looked up. “So, about the house. Anything worse?”

“Far from it.” Ydwin sounded satisfied, which meant either horrifying science was afoot or everything was well. She didn’t hold back problems when someone asked about them. “The new deposit is luminous.”

“Luminous adra? Here?” Not in the Deadfire, where it belonged? That meant food for Ydwin. It meant several significant things.

“I think it’s still…growing into it, so to speak. I’ve taken extensive notes. —Aloth, I was expecting.”

“Coming for another day in the Dyrwood’s least stable domicile. It isn’t too late to go home, Vail.”

This _was_ Vailond’s home. “The beds here don’t move. That’s nice.”

Ydwin had moved on. “Edér?”

“In the flesh, which is more than I can say for some people.” Edér beamed. “It’s good to see you, Ydwin.”

“It’s not entirely unpleasant to see you as well. Vailond, did you find Xoti?”

“The Temple at Neketaka said she was on pilgrimage. No luck.”

“I see. Her ability to direct souls would be invaluable.”

“Do you see souls here?”

“Only with those smudges the soulview cube allows. It will be good to have your vision back.”

Ydwin did know how to warm the heart, sort of. It made Vailond feel more comfortable about her own rougher edges.

“Oh,” said Ydwin. The younger wolves had caught up. “There are…more of them.”

“Effort. Consideration. Here, boys.” Edér buried his fingers firmly in their ruffs. “Nice. You’re going to get a huge yard to dig in.”

“Keep them away from the adra,” said Vailond. “I can’t keep them safe.”

“Got it. I taught them about the lighthouse. This should be the same, just, bigger.”

“Good.”

Ydwin gestured toward the main hall and started walking. “I have many ideas to address now that you’re here. You’re aware that apart from the chapel the animancers’ work space has been extremely constrained. There is a great deal of unused space underneath Caed Nua.”

“You are not setting up shop next to the pillar.”

“If you want. The upper levels of existing space aren’t actually that close to the pillar site.”

“Today,” Aloth said ominously. “Tomorrow just an incremental increase, just to eke out a little more laboratory space…if you approach that adra none of us will be responsible for what happens.”

Ydwin spiked one eyebrow. “Risk? Me? I think you’ll find me up to the task.”

Aloth muttered. “And my life’s search for an animancer who knows when to stop continues.”

They passed an outlying building. Vailond looked up.

And up, and up.

Relative to the giant statue that Eothas had unearthed to inhabit, this pillar shot up through the entire pit left by his passing and surged half again higher. It glistened in the sun, showing a deep green. It was blunt as a thumb, except…

“What are those holes?” said Aloth, saving Vailond the effort. They were little divots in the surface, each with a little arc of adra forming a ring.

“We don’t know,” sighed Ydwin. “There are twelve of them. Our measurements can’t detect any unusual soul power around them. I could say I was planning to leave them alone, but that’s flagrantly untrue.”

“Be careful,” said Vailond. “Somebody sent this damned thing. I don’t want to piss that somebody off.”

“If they grant us an enigma, it seems incumbent on us to decipher its meaning.”

Vailond peered at it with her Watcher’s senses. She saw only a trickle of souls hovering inside. This had not become a conduit for the dead.

“You think we could use this to shepherd souls?” she said.

“Now you’re talking like Xoti,” said Edér.

“Yes, but is she right?”

“Let’s come inside,” said Ydwin. “The Steward will want to see you.”

“Only boring status, I hope.”

Ydwin shrugged. “I think the giant adra spike was the highlight.”

*

The Brighthollow Inn. When Vailond had insisted on continuing to sail the Deadfire six months ago, part of it was to avoid this place, its homey curtains, its comfortable nooks, its expansive fireplaces…which had witnessed her being driven almost to madness by the Watcher curse Thaos had laid upon her. His death caused the condition to recede enough for her to think and breathe, but it was still hard to come here among memories.

She had lived here by herself letting them fade around her, but now, with a mystery afoot, her heart brought them forth anew.

The Grieving Mother, smashing the past and leaving only false comfort. Durance, interrupting a dozen midnights with musing about the time he’d been used to kill a god. Kana Rua, trying to make the place welcoming using only his voice and charm even in the middle of construction. Hiravias, sleeping in the bushes outside and sometimes yelling bawdy rhymes up at the windows. Pallegina, reflexively straightening mussed curtains and tucking in chairs. Sagani, giving her wisdom of similar ages and similar skills in a wildly, wildly different setting.

Aloth and Edér were immediate. They didn’t haunt her.

“Vail? Is everything all right?”

Vailond looked at Aloth. Once, here, a long time ago, he had asked her whether it was getting worse.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she said.

He smiled. “Is it that bad?”

“I don’t like this place. I was here when Eothas broke out.”

“Do you wish to sleep elsewhere?”

She thought about it. Someplace under the stars would be perfect, though Aloth would hate it. “No,” she said. “I’m the Lady of Caed Nua and I get the biggest bed.” She smiled. “So do you.”

He brought her to the spacious bedroom she had used before. She had left Tyrhos touring the campus, showing the young wolves around the bushes and doors where he had lived alongside Vailond and her friends. Aloth and Vailond had the bedroom to themselves.

She crawled onto the wide fur-heaped bed and curled. Accustomed to this, Aloth sat on the edge, twisted a little to lay one hand over her shoulders, and let her finish curling around him. “Has Caed Nua recovered to where it was a year ago?”

“Before Eothas ripped out the centerpiece? I guess. The buildings are good. The population is smaller.”

“Until the adra calms down, I suppose I can’t blame those who stay away.”

“Do you think the animancers can bind it in place?”

“I don’t know. Do you think they’re trying?”

“I’ll talk to Ydwin.”

“She is motivated by knowledge, Vail. And that kind of person is extremely dangerous.”

“You’re motivated by knowledge, Aloth.”

“And look at the damage I’ve done.” He leaned down and she leaned up and they kissed in the way one kisses when one is in an awkward physical position but doesn’t want to let go.

“Tired,” she admitted, and peeled off her leather tunic, and flopped to consume exactly half the mattress. She wasn’t really big enough, but she tried. Aloth laughed and rested on her muscular arm for lack of continuous surface. A ranger saw no borders on a map.

When she opened her eyes she knew she was dreaming, and she knew that she was not witnessing herself. Her Watcher senses did not dig up her old incarnations, nor those of strangers.

The person she was looking at was not a soul in the endless-ribbon-of-changes sense. He must have been created from scraps, and recently.

She wasn’t sure where she was. The forest, maybe, fragrant and familiar, but she couldn’t turn her head to see it. Ahead the pine needles scattered onto a hardwood floor and gave up. There were walls that were all fancy gilt portrait frames showing faces that Vailond thought she would recognize if she could just stare at one long enough, but they seemed to slide and run down when she tried.

On the far wall was a fireplace, wide and high enough to walk into, a wall of fire within. And midway between her and it there was a skeletal armchair of black wood, and sitting on it, a man.

He was big. Big even for a human. He wore a sleeveless gray vest and leather boots and only close-fitting black in between. He had a shock of black hair, tending back just past his nape. The backs of his arms were in shadow, only lined over each muscle by licks of firelight. There was a sense of power above, and beyond, and, too, within.

It was really very warm. Vailond tried to step forward and couldn’t. The man’s head was turning. Slowly, with many little falters, as though he too were snared. He turned only until she could see the very corner of his eye. He was cleanshaven and strong of feature. His clear-cut lips parted. “Vvvvai…”

The room, not this one, a physical one, lit in blinding light.

The building shook. Vailond opened her eyes. The rumble that followed shook the bed out of place. Broken glass tumbled across the floor. Vailond slithered down and seized her crossbow to slot in a bolt. Through the blood-red afterimage Vailond elbowed a vantage point onto the windowsill and aimed out into the night.


	2. Awakening and Elements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The flash of the newfound Pillar at Caed Nua associates with unexpected results. Friends come to Caed Nua, and Vailond seeks answers from Berath. The use of the Pillar is considered. Previously published as chapters 2 and first part of 3.

_Rymrgand rules the cold and the end_

_In entropy downward all mortal paths bend._

  * Dyrwoodan children’s song



The adra pillar across the big yard stood glowing a livid green in the night. As Vailond watched from her broken windowsill, knobs and patches of the green surface flashed a baleful white light and faded again. It was as if lightning had struck the adra and the adra was trying to spit it back.

Aloth was beside her, sweeping glass shards aside. “Do you see anyone?”

She blinked, trying to erase the images. The various outbuildings of Caed Nua appeared to be intact. Nobody was moving outside them. For that matter, no new shapes were lying on the lawn. “No.”

“Whoever sent that pillar, perhaps they are trying to take it back.”

“I don’t think so,” Vailond said slowly. “I think this is someone disagreeing with whoever sent it.”

“Have any of them…you know. Spoken to you?”

“The gods? No. Not since Eothas.”

“Since we didn’t stop him destroying the Wheel, perhaps they believe our usefulness is over.”

“One of them wanted me to do something with this adra.” She scrambled around him and stood. “I’m going to talk to the Steward.”

“I will scan the grounds for wounded or…well. I will come to you once the immediate vicinity is cleared.”

“Don’t get close to it.”

“You couldn’t pay me.”

Vailond clutched her crossbow and stole downstairs, only to find a dozen other residents pouring onto the lawn. Tyrhos met her at the door, whining. Malda seemed to sleep blissfully on next to the indoor fountain.

“Come on,” whispered Vailond, and let the big gray wolf out into the sticky night.

She moved in a ground-gnawing stealth for the main hall. She ignored the scholars and visitors who milled in and out. The Steward, her stone bust installed beside the great hall’s throne, spoke as soon as Vailond was within earshot. “What happened?”

“Something hit the adra,” said Vailond. “It was flashing white. I don’t know what that means.”

“The keep’s records of the adra statue…you understand, the statue was the only comparable structure in Caed Nua.”

“Understood. Go on.”

“I have no records of its creation. I do have records of partial digs. There are three examples of nights when workers went mad after a flash from some section of the statue.”

“Mad. Did they get better?”

“No.”

“How many? How many for how long?”

“Seven. Until their deaths, which as a rule came shortly thereafter.”

“And my new pillar is doing that to my people?”

“We can cordon off a larger portion of the yard. Perhaps feeding it would help.”

“What, just find the recently dead and throw it at it?”

“The Engwithans made machines that can direct souls.”

“Oh. Oh, no. I am not reactivating Thaos’s network.”

“Instead of using it to create the Hollowborn curse, you’ll be using it to guide the souls of the dead to focus a restless problem. Isn’t that better?”

“I have to talk this over with Aloth.”

“Vailond,” the Steward said urgently. Even in a hurry, she didn’t use Vailond’s nickname. “Be cautious if you go looking. I don’t think these adra outbursts distinguish between sinner and saint.”

Vailond stepped back out. She started toward the vast adra formation. Even from here she could feel its soul-residue energy. It was a powerhouse for any animancer daring enough to take it.

People were passing her. Animancers, laborers. She told them to stay calm and stay out – oh, she described the new radius. This building, not that one. Would it be enough? Would she be to blame for anyone who walked into that area now? Eothas had destroyed her home once. Was this new tower going to do the same?

She counted. She didn’t know everyone in Caed Nua anymore, not after her year’s journey, but she counted anyway. There seemed to be a lot of people, all in groups, looking after one another. All but one.

“Aloth?” she yelled. “Aloth!”

Tyrhos growled. “Whoa,” said Vailond. He did that for danger and for people whose souls weren’t rightly seated. “You smell something?” A soul malady on someone who had been too close at the wrong time?

But Tyrhos turned away from the adra pillar and started trotting toward the eastern barbican. Vailond kept up, dreading but not really certain how anything outside the castle would be affected by the explosion.

“Ach, ye done overbilt this wretchit wall.” The shrill voice was familiar. “Open up, ye idjits!”

“Iselmyr,” said Vailond. “I’m glad to see you.”

Iselmyr, a past identity of Aloth’s Awakened soul, always looked a bit wild-eyed in his features. “Changeit yer tune, haven’tcha?”

“You protect Aloth. I like that about you.” If anybody was going to take over Aloth’s body and walk around, if any past aspect of himself had to do so, they could all do worse than Iselmyr.

“And ye make him happier’n a cur wi’ three bitches. I like ye well enicht.” Tyrhos growled. Iselmyr looked down at him. “Some dogs, on t’other hand…wickit dog. Wickit.”

Iselmyr looked at Vailond. Vailond looked at Iselmyr.

“So…” said Vailond. She was supposed to go away and let Aloth surface.

“Don’t ye still like me, lass?”

“Sure, I’m just, um.” It suddenly sounded petty. Did she really appreciate Iselmyr for leaving? Yes, but it did seem petty. “It’s, uh. Look, maybe we should go home.”

Iselmyr smiled unpleasantly with Aloth’s mouth. “Lass, I never thought ye for the philandering kind.”

“I’ll find you a bed.”

Tyrhos insisted on staying between Vailond and Iselmyr. The wolf had never liked iselmyr surfacing in Aloth’s body back when they were all traveling together, and he seemed even more tense now. Vailond rested a hand on his wiry-furred back and headed back on a long arc to the Brighthollow inn.

“Lass, ye should conne, I saved miself for wedlock.” Iselmyr leered. “The first three times.”

She should be gone by now. When she surfaced in Aloth’s life it was just long enough to bluster through the nearest danger, then she would stop. So was there still danger that Vailond couldn’t see? Or had something happened when Aloth got close to the pillar? “Madness” and Awakening had letters in common…

Vailond stopped Iselmyr in the doorway between lingering heat and dusty stuffiness. “Is Aloth alive?”

“What? Should he not? Yer man’s jest under. Jest under. Ye litting me in?”

“You’re not staying in my room.”

“Like I hain’t before.” Aloth wasn’t great at snickering. “Remember, yer man hain’t seen what I’ve seen, but I can see through him.”

“It isn’t fair, Iselmyr. You had your life.”

“And hain’t more life the end of it all? Oh, goo’night, serrah. Nip ye well.”

Had Iselmyr ever kept control through a whole night? Surely not. Vailond let Tyrhos up onto the bed and slipped into an uneasy sleep. She did not return to the fireplace room in her dreams, which was just as well.

*

Iselmyr kept control in the morning.

Vailond did not know Ydwin well. She had recruited the animancer in Neketaka shortly before they went to Ukaizo for Eothas’ assault on the Wheel, and had almost as quickly sent her to Caed Nua to study potential solutions to the problem of the Wheel’s absence.

Right now the pale elf paced at the end of Caed Nua’s hall. The echoes of everyone’s words seemed to sustain the tension of the moment.

“Vailond, with due respect, the particulars of this pillar, while interesting and while certainly within our purview, may not answer questions as to where it came from and whether it is linked to our new requirement for Eoran reincarnation. Let me deal with the animancy. You’re needed dealing with the In-Between.”

“You want me to leave Aloth with you.”

“So I donnae get a name now,” mused Aloth’s voice.

“Surfacing one Awakened facet over another is…nontrivial. But we can get an answer in the time it takes you to get a tolerable schematic of a new Wheel.”

“I don’t want an ‘answer.’ I want my lover.”

Ydwin peered over her glasses. “They really weren’t kidding about you. Get you in a corner…”

“And I’ll punch out the wall. Believe me, it’s gotten me this far. And I’m going to get Aloth back.”

Outside, morning was blushing from the east. Vailond hated things that played coy. Edér was on the lawn. “Hey!” he called. “Hey, I heard something about…is Aloth all right?”

“I don’t know. Iselmyr won’t let me talk to him.”

“But that always passes after…a few…” Edér swallowed. “Where is she?”

Ydwin hadn’t gotten them far. Aloth’s slack face started beaming. “Edér, yer a sight for sore eyes!”

“Uh, hello. Iselmyr.”

“Why so shy? Ye’re quick enough te say hello most days.”

“Is Aloth…is he in there?”

“Yer concern tetches me. Aye, he’s in me, and naught fer asking.”

“That’s…that’s good.” Edér fidgeted. “You think he might, uh. Come out soon?”

“Let him talk to her,” Ydwin said urgently. “This way.”

“I will chain her in place if I have to,” growled Vailond.

“Speaking of which,” said Ydwin.

“What?” snapped Vailond.

“The lab space in the keep basement?”

“Vailond,” said the Steward from the wall, “we never did anything with it, apart from cremating Maerwald. Would you review it?”

“Aloth.”

“Give Edér time to work.”

“This review shouldn’t take long,” Ydwin said crisply. “This way.”

“I know where the stairway is,” snapped Vailond.

“Of course. My apologies.”

Two strangers popped out of nowhere as Vailond led the way to the stairs. “Contractors,” Ydwin said coolly. “There.” She pointed.

The first basement of Caed Nua was stale with disuse. Vailond remembered driving the giant spiders clear of this place; it seemed like their giant triangular webs hadn’t been touched.

“All right,” said Vailond. “Supplies over there. Clear out those cells in the middle. Open lab. Offices around the edge—”

“Let’s keep those,” said Ydwin, eyeing the jail cells speculatively.

“I…don’t want to know,” said Vailond. “All right, you happy?”

“Clear every cell apart from that corner,” Ydwin ordered. “Thank you, my lady. I’ll take it from here.”

*

“So then I tell him, ‘Maybe next time a haircut!”

Aloth’s body gave a cackling laugh. “No, ye dinnae! How did I miss this?”

“You got anything else to think about when you’re not in control?”

“I started counting up from one twenty years ago. There be a thankless job.”

“Really?”

“I count slow.”

Vailond knocked on the doorframe. “Hi. You’re not planning on keeping her like this forever, are you?”

Edér looked guilty. “No. We just got to talking, and…”

“Comparing notes,” said Iselmyr. “I miss sich things even watching.”

“Is Aloth safe.”

Iselmyr threw up her hands. “Aye! What do ye want to conne? Aye, he’s there!”

“And this is his lifetime. Not yours.”

“When did ye become such a bitch?”

“When did you claim Aloth’s assets?”

“Ladies,” said Edér.

Iselmyr ignored him. “And how did ye plan on punishing me, exactly?”

“I have ideas. Most of them have to do with more boredom than even you imagine.”

“Fye, ye wouldna.”

“Try me.”

There was a slight thump. Aloth’s body went limp and he fell like a stone.

“Aloth!” Vailond jumped for him. She looked up at Ydwin. “What did you do?”

“An experiment,” Ydwin said crisply, running her fingertips around what appeared to be a brass gyroscope in a glass egg. “It just nudges the dominant soul. In a delicately balanced situation, well, something might just fall out of place.”

Dread seized her gut, a little late. “In the future you will not _experiment_ on my friends.”

“I didn’t. I was experimenting with his absence. Unless you want to keep Iselmyr around…?”

Vailond turned. “Aloth?”

“Who’s angry with me this time?” groaned Aloth.

Vailond crouched and took his forearm. “Nobody. It’s just me and Edér and Ydwin.”

“I am not available for experiments,” growled Aloth.

“No need, I have the notes I want.” Ydwin lowered her little gyroscope and examined the nails of her other hand. With every evidence of sincerity she added, “Thank you,” and clacked away in her heeled boots.

Vailond squeezed Aloth’s hand. “Did that feel like a long time?”

“No. Why do you…how long was I out?”

“The flash must have been near midnight. It’s late morning now.”

Aloth shook a shuddering breath. “I see. It’s never been that long. The pillar…whatever it did, it did it thoroughly.”

“I’m having them draw up a bigger forbidden zone.”

It didn’t occur to her to tell him about the strange figure in her dream. There was just so much else going on.

*

Two aumaua came to the western barbican. No. An aumaua and a godlike with hair like a dozen fat water worms.

Bearn ran eagerly across the yard and into the keep. “Lady Vailond! Lady Vailond!” The guests followed close behind.

Vailond was sitting opposite Aloth in the tiny library off the main hall. It felt more secure than the big room.

Vailond scowled. “This isn’t a good time.”

“Ekera, it seems we arrived at an inopportune time.”

Vailond’s head snapped around. “Tekēhu! Why the hell didn’t you come with me?”

“I was not going to. You made your world sound so dreary. And yet, I met a man who knew your name.”

Vailond stood and reached for the other aumaua’s hands. “Kana. Aren’t you tired of me?”

“Vailond, you make history when you sneeze. And I tried to live elsewhere. It lacks the same flair.”

Just at that moment, Vailond was certain they would disappear. “I’m glad you’re both here.”

Tekēhu looked pleased. “You are demonstrative, I say.”

“I need something to not break,” she said. “Did Bearn warn you about the adra pillar?”

“In vivid terms,” said Kana. “You realize we weren’t nearly this careful with the last adra formation.”

“Yes, and it turned alive and killed almost everyone I know.”

“Fair point. Will you plumb this one’s mysteries?”

“My animancer wants to. Tekēhu, it’s been six months. Kana, it’s been six years. As soon as I fix Aloth up we’re going to sit down and talk.”

“They tell me you have a fine crisis worked up,” said Kana. “Is Aloth hurt?”

“Iselmyr was in control since last night,” said Vailond. “I think she’s finally gone away.”

“She must be so happy,” said Kana. “Though I am not unaware of the cost.”

“The cost?” What a ridiculously tiny word. “I love him!”

Kana’s faint eyebrows rose. “I didn’t know. Is this new?”

“Six months. Five days.” She peered toward the window. “Two or three hours.”

“Vailond infatuated. Will wonders never cease?”

“This is long term.”

“For some people, infatuation lasts a lifetime.”

“Oh.” She considered. “I think I like that.”

Tekēhu chuckled. “It was a joy to watch her fall in love, though the signs were few, I say.”

“You two! You should’ve come up with us!” Edér beamed. The room was getting crowded. “I think Aloth’s going to sleep it off. Food’s this way.” Kana and Tekēhu immediately made much over him, but they did it while walking.

“Listen,” said Edér, “we need to understand where the gods are and whether they’re going to help us at all. Woedica wouldn’t, but the others might. Near as I can tell, Vail isn’t viewing gods anymore, so we need an in.”

“Hmm,” said Tekēhu. “Do the gods favor Caed Nua’s adra?”

“I don’t know yet. There used to be an order of Berathian priests at Raedric’s keep, a couple of days away. If it’s changed its tune recently, they might know.”

“It’s a pleasant enough walk,” said Kana. “And I missed my opportunity to browse their library when last we went that way. Perhaps the priests have forgiven our purge of everyone else in the fort.”

Edér chuckled. “You are a hopeful one. Tekēhu, how was your walk in?”

“It was not what I expected, I say. Everything smells of sweat and crusts.”

Vailond caught up with them. “Those are trees, Tekēhu. People, and trees.”

“I will try to curb my craving for salt air.”

*

Bearn Vessit, farmboy and former religious warrior, walked into the giant construction site that was Caed Nua’s upper basement repurposing and went straight to the big writing desk with the small pale elf. Here was the center of animancy in the Dyrwood. If anyone was to understand the world where Eothas had destroyed the Wheel…well, animancy had to be the key.

“Ma’am? Ma’am, do you, do you need an assistant or something?”

“I need dozens of them.” Ydwin didn’t look up. “Are you an experienced animancer?”

“I could be.”

Ydwin’s head came up. She looked him over, trying to appear polite. This boy did not look learned. “Can you read and write?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Where his mother Elafa had died with lessons unfinished, Edér had picked up the slack.

“Have you had exposure to luminous adra?”

“I grew up on an island with a formation.”

“Intriguing. Pay attention, I do not repeat myself.”

“You’ve got nothing on my foster dad, lady. —Ma’am.”

“Hm. We’ll see about that.” She jerked her head toward a small bookcase under a gauzy dustcover. “Read the first two on there. Get back to me tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“And duck.” She took her own advice. Bearn dropped as if slammed unconscious. Something sharp sang through the hair, passing between teams that were clearing spiderwebs in the corners of the huge lab.

“You have potential,” murmured Ydwin. “Tomorrow morning.”

*

“I didn’t believe it,” murmured the fur-bundled dwarf.

The sun on the White That Wends was blinding. In all the snowy valley there were only three trails: Sagani, Torru the hound, and a slender woman who had stopped at the valley’s outlet to set up a black-stick shrine with a candle offering in an ornate candlestick. She was hunched over it like a huddling dog.

Sagani kept Torru at her side. “Hey. Who goes there?”

A head came up. A dark woman in a green cloak. Something glistened on her forehead. Her lips were white and chapped, her face reddened raw.

“Are you the one I saw?” she said with an accent Sagani couldn’t place. “I’ve been faithful. I came to the right place.”

“Are you even carrying food?” said Sagani, eyeing the woman’s small pack.

“I had a dream,” said the woman. “And I didn’t know what to expect at the end.” She smiled weakly. “I’m Xoti.”

“I’m mildly incredulous. Sagani. Finish wrapping your hood around your face.” She walked up and picked. “Like this. Come on. Pick up your stuff. What’s that with your candle? Eothas, right?”

“I’m one of the Children of the Dawnstars.” Xoti was packing. “We don’t spend a lot of time down here.”

“But you’re here.”

“Yes. Say, do you have water? It takes so much time to melt the snow…”

“Walk. With me. Torru, stay in our tracks.”

“This isn’t at all like when the Watcher took us to the White That Wends,” said Xoti.

Sagani cast her a sidelong look. “Watcher, huh? You meet many of those?”

“Just the one. Tore up the Deadfire but good last year.”

“Yeah,” said Sagani. “I heard about that. You really knew her?”

Xoti smiled. “Official morale officer of the _Defiant_.”

“She ever mention the people she got Watchered next to?”

“She didn’t talk much about it. I think it hurt.”

“Still? That woman knows how to cherish a grudge.” They were nearing the edge of the dual trail into the valley. The ridge was completely covered in snow, and the way grew narrow as they backtracked on Sagani and Torru’s path.

They made it back to Massuk and got Xoti properly bundled and fed. Sagani’s children were mostly of hunting age by now, but they were still frankly curious about the traveler. Xoti answered questions about the Dawnstars and the Deadfire until Sagani forcibly shoved a bowl of stew under her nose. “Let’s leave some air for her,” she said. “Some food, a place to rest. We’ll talk.”

Patience chafed, but Sagani gave Xoti the best of her furs and let her bundle up under Kallu’s roof. Curious children notwithstanding, it was traditional to ask no questions for two nights after the arrival of a guest, unless the guest broke the silence first.

“I feel like some of my skin fell off without telling me,” said Xoti, dipping her fingers into the blubber oil.

“I think some of it did,” Sagani said wryly. “Take it slow. You might want to warm it in your palm before you bring it to your face.”

“You’re very kind,” said Xoti. “Not every place I’ve been is.”

“We have enough challenges with the land. Why add to that with personal cruelties?”

Xoti asked questions. Questions about Massuk, about hunting, about souls, though Sagani couldn’t answer many questions there. The day was given to chores—Xoti offered to help and Sagani practically shoved her back in her place—and then a feast-day meal, the finest the village could assemble. Xoti opened up under the soaring sun, talking about the Dawnstars and where they had come from and where they were going. Sagani knew she herself was by far the most well-traveled of her village. To the others, this talk of temperate islands and jungle continents was entirely new.

And in the morning, finally, Sagani squatted beside Xoti. “You didn’t come here to market the Deadfire as a vacation destination.”

“No. I was led in a dream.”

“You get dreams much?”

“I am a priestess of Gaun, the aspect of Eothas. I used to get them all the time. Not always fun, though.”

“You think Eothas sent you?”

“Who would be left to send me dreams?” Xoti smiled coyly. “Why would he send me to you?”

Sagani gritted her teeth. “If he starts nudging, we need to move before the nations start crumbling.”

“If we’re talking about crumbling nations, Vail is back at Caed Nua. She rebuilt it after Eothas climbed out.”

“She did like the place. I don’t think she gets to keep a lot of things for herself.”

“Oh,” said Xoti. “I never really thought about that. She gave up the _Defiant_ to come deal with some adra pillar.”

“Adra…? Back up. I haven’t seen her in six years. Explain everything.” Outside the wind was rising to promise a summer storm. Nothing would be done today, except chores and talking.

*

It was noon and the dining hall to one side of the keep was only cool because it was built high and its slit windows stood in the shade. Vailond looked at her best: Aloth, Edér, Kana, Tekēhu. Tyrhos and the young wolves lay under tables gnawing on bones. Effort had tried to steal the others’ once or twice, but he was outnumbered, and Tyrhos, with the gentlest of looks, could take Effort’s entire head in his great grizzled jaws.

“Vail?” said Edér. “If we’re trying to sort out gods…Raedric had an entire chapel about Berath. With those monks we snuck through. If it won’t listen here, maybe it’ll listen there.”

“Berath owes me something,” said Vailond. “Fine, let’s bring a group.”

The quartermaster of Caed Nua was a paunchy Vailian who wore an outrageous tricorn hat and seemed to have trade contacts from Readceras to Twin Elms to Defiance Bay and back. When Vailond said she wanted to supply five people and four wolves to walk to Raedric’s keep—no, Kolsc’s keep—he didn’t turn a hair.

Vailond walked first, and shot anything she thought the wolves could eat. It made for the occasional stop while the kith went into the shade and the wolves tore at their latest morsel.

And then they were there. Kolsc’s castle was the county seat of Gilded Vale. Its previous tenant had been a madman who slaughtered his wife and dozens of others during the curse of the Hollowborn. Vailond had put him down. Kolsc, his cousin, now greeted them with open arms.

“What news of Caed Nua?” he said. “Come, are the wolves happier outside?”

“I like ‘em near,” Edér said innocently.

“Then they stay near. What of Caed Nua? I hear rumors, these days.”

“Oh, there’s a giant adra pillar,” said Vailond. “Nobody knows why. I thought we could ask Berath, and last I checked you had an itty-bitty Berath cult hidden away somewhere.”

“My scholars are not hidden to any of my friends. Edér, have you been to see Gilded Vale? It prospers.”

“I’m glad to hear it. This way?” Edér walked at a calm, unstoppable pace. “I don’t suppose the chapel has kind of a direct connection…”

“Would not this world be a different place if those were available. No, they pray to silence. Still, if you have a question—perhaps for a Watcher its lips will part.”

Vailond felt herself curling up inside as they walked. Kolsc’s keep was a cramped, winding affair, with staircases in surprising corners just when you thought you had all the angles covered. The monastic wing was a large hall with stained-glass windows and a long wall’s worth of books. Kolsc introduced the high priest.

“I need to talk to Berath,” said Vailond.

“Ah, our words here rise to the Usher and the Pallid Knight…”

“Pallid Knight’s fine. How do I reach her.”

“I…don’t understand,” the monk said politely.

“I need to get a message to the Pallid Knight. Can you do that here?”

“Oh, you’re going to break his head.” It was a younger monk, an orlan woman even shorter than Vailond. “I can burn a question for you, but it’s Berath’s decision whether to answer. Sometimes I think it does watch over us when we send this stuff. Sometimes I think the fire may as well…” she seemed to remember her company. “Burn for the faithful,” she said emptily. “Come on, what do you want to ask?”

“Berath? Can you hear me? Do you want to? You want to plant another damned hook in my soul?” Vailond waited. “Berath?”

The priestess leaned toward her. “At times we burn incense to thin the veil between life and the In-Between. To open the door.”

“Is this incense or ‘incense’?” Vailond said.

“Well…’incense,’” said the priestess.

“Fuck it. I’ll take anything.”

Vailond had written her inquiry down. It was simple:

_Berath:_

_Who sent this pillar, and who’s talking about swinging at me next?_

  * _Your Herald, Vailond_



She held it in her hands as the priests sang a weird song and lit a censer that started to smoke pure rainbows. Vailond inhaled, and hoped.

She felt slowly lighter. It was a pleasant sensation. Just…floating. She looked at her hand and it didn’t seem like it was hers. She closed one eye, then the other, enjoying the colorful shapes behind her eyelids. She didn’t feel closer to any gods, but that was just a matter of time.

“Let’s put it with the others,” said the orlan priestess.

“What?” said Vailond. Her insides were drifting.

“Your note.” She led Vailond to a brazier by the altar. “Excuse me while I give this a proper sendoff,” and she started mumbling a rapid stream of what sounded like Eld Aedyran. She tossed the note into the flames and mumbled again. That done, she turned almost bouncily. “There! That’s as far as we can get it.”

“But do you expect a reply?”

“Oh, no. Berath is understood in meditation, not speech.”

Vailond looked at her The rainbows were starting to get on her nerves.

“Was that helpful?” Edér said mildly. “Because I dunno how long Consideration wants to keep breathing this.”

“The chime,” the priestess said urgently. “Hey! The chime!”

It rang though her ears. It rang through her head. It rang through her shoulders and arms and hands and quivering fingertips. It rang through her torso, inside her breasts and belly. It rang up and down her legs and licked at her feet.

“Berath,” she mumbled. “I don’t know what else it takes. —Get them out. Get everyone out.” Vailond heard no celestial voices here. Maybe she shouldn’t have hoped.

Nobody took her orders. Maybe she didn’t sound imposing enough. She floated over toward the irritating orlan priestess. “I should tell you to stop. Berath doesn’t care about you. It thinks it’s doing us a favor, giving us choices—but it wouldn’t lift a finger to save you or me. At all. There are better things to serve than gods.”

The high priest scowled. “Like what?”

“The creation of a new con, condu, place for souls. I’m talking about a kith-built way to help souls choose their births. Pull them out of the In-Between and let ‘em float. In people. Float in…be in people. Don’t float.”

A fire had kindled in the high priest’s eyes. “Blasphemy?”

“Fuck gods. Otherwise, no.”

“We should observe,” he concluded with a swinging finger. “This sounds very observable. Will you let our scholars observe?”

“Go to Caed Nua. Tell them Vailond sent you.”

She felt more or less alert by the time she reached Kolsc’s hall again. “Are you stealing my scholars?” he said warily.

“The ones who want to go.”

Kolsc fell back into his throne. “Thank the gods. No, thank _you_. Those guys are creepy.”

*

Kolsc had given them horses to speed their journey. Vailond knew more about eating horses than riding them, but she did enjoy feeling tall.

“There’s one more thing while we’re here,” she said. They had covered most of the distance to Gilded Vale. There was one more thing she had to check about souls.

The horse responded to her knees and fingertips very well. She came up beside Aloth. “You look like a portrait of a general.”

“I doubt a general wears this,” he said, touching his own bare arms.

“Well, they would if they looked that good in it.”

Aloth laughed, slightly nervously, and they went on together.

They rode north, north and west. Vailond could happily have skirted Gilded Vale, but Edér looked so happy just looking in its direction.

“All right,” she said. “Through the town square.”

Gilded Vale looked like a little paradise. It was the same great tree and outlying houses as before, but the tree was a rich, sunny green and people were bustling among houses like nothing was wrong with the world.

“The temple’s been bricked up,” said Edér. “I wonder how long it’ll take ‘em to put a new building up in its place.”

“Is that blasphemy?”

“Is he alive to call us on it? I think maybe he’ll try to help again, but…I don’t know that his worshippers really get much out of it.”

“Should we ride?”

“One more stop.” He turned his horse to the northeast, up a couple of minutes to a farmhouse in the midst of a bright green field.

“Well, it’s still cultivated,” he said. “Someone’s taking good care here.” Finished judging the field, he dismounted and tossed the reins to Vailond. He walked to the little house—just enough for four, maybe—and knocked.

A sturdy-looking elf opened the door. “Yes? What is it?” Her dark eyes took in the six horses. “What do you want?”

“Not much, ma’am. My name’s Edér. I used to live here.”

She stamped her foot and glared up at him. “You left the lower-floor joists in a state.”

Edér grimaced. “Always meant to work on that. Got distracted by the lynch mobs.”

“What are you on about? Gilded Vale is peaceful these days.”

“Sure, once I was out.” Edér chewed his lip. “Anyway, I guess I just wanted to see the place. You, uh, want more stones for your north wall, turning over the pasture should give you about a million. I put sod over it but the rocks are still in there.”

“Hm. I suppose you and your entourage want a tour of the place.”

“Oh, they can stay outside. There’s nobody else here from Gilded Vale, it’s just me.”

“Vak?” It was shrill. “Vak, there’s someone here.”

In the end, a man with a rusty broadsword on his back beckoned Edér in. “Hm,” said the elven man. “I guess I was always afraid that this house was empty because of the purges.”

“Only indirectly. No, my parents and my brother and I lived here ever since I was born, and I’m still around.”

“I told you there weren’t any ghosts, love.”

“I warn you, we aren’t selling.”

“Sell…ing?” Edér’s eyes got big. “Oh, no, I’ve got trouble going on in too many exotic locations to settle back here. Nice to see you’re comfortable in it.”

The visit ended on polite, even friendly terms. Vailond led the way to the Black Hound. Where else? Tekēhu was the only one here who hadn’t traveled the Dyrwood with Vailond, and he sat back and drew out stories as expertly as the professional storyteller Kana did. Who knew, maybe Tekēhu would turn the story into a sculpture at Caed Nua.

In the morning they rode north along a beaten path. The war stories fell behind them; Vailond had followed this trail alone. She rode until her heart had fully risen into her throat, then went off the trail and into the forest.

Her horse was reluctant but she cooed and shushed it, keeping a firm seat. It followed her direction. Then the trees parted. There, in the middle of nowhere, like a fat green-gray vase that someone had set upright before abandoning forever, an Engwithan machine.

There were still ashen statues standing in attitudes of agony around it. Still, after six years.

It was twice Vailond’s height even with her horse. She dismounted. “There it is,” she said. “There…there it is. This took everything from me.”

“You’re still standing,” Edér said mildly.

“This led you to me,” Aloth said quietly. “Without it we would never have met.”

“I became a Watcher here. But it can do more than that. I…want to do more than that. I can use it to direct dead souls toward our Pillar.”

She dismounted by the low gray control pedestal. Symbols glowed to her touch. Her heart pounded. The machine’s outer rings began to spin as she worked. She set the controls for the direction to send loose souls in. Back home, that was where.

Thaos had used these machines to deny an entire country incoming souls. Changing the focus to those that were already dead…it didn’t make any of this feel right. But then, what else was she supposed to do?

“We should hurry back,” she said. “We’re in Glanfathan territory and I don’t want trouble with them.”

Edér looked thoughtful. “Won’t they understand our trespassing on account of the Hollowborn apocalypse we’re preventing?”

“Let’s never find out.” Vailond mounted. “Come on. It’s time to go home.”

*

Vailond was sleeping until she wasn’t. She opened her eyes and stared.

She was on a small white platform, frigid under her boots. She was looking down, surrounded by the murk of the In-Between.

She opened her Watcher’s senses and staggered backward. There, in a rounded hollow in the In-Between, lay thousands or millions of souls.

They were luminous and irregularly shaped, like a pile of bubbles in a stream’s eddies. They were bright, so bright it hurt, and so numerous Vailond’s heart labored just to take them in.

The great aurochs appeared beside her. “These are mine,” it said conversationally. “And every day I get more. You will never guide them back to life. They will break down in my domain. You will not live without gods. You will certainly die with gods. The world will be ours.”

“Rymrgand.” And the best she could hope for was to play them against one another. “Does Woedica know that?”

“Woedica is not your most pressing problem.”

“Did you make the adra pillar flash? Who did?”

“Perhaps I wanted to test the goods. It Awakens everyone in range, is that not a fascinating phenomenon for a Watcher? I was not the first god to visit you, and I will not be the last. But in the end, all things come to nothing. Go. I wish to count my tributes.”

It felt like a block of ice slammed her off her feet and down into bed. Aloth was there, sleeping peacefully.

Which she loved, but really, some help he was.

She slipped her fingers into the hollow of his palm and he grasped her with a light touch. She tugged the bedroll to her cheekbones. In time, she slept.

*

Vailond dismounted, walked to Brighthollow, climbed the stairs, found her bed, and fell into it.

Aloth followed minutes later. “Are you all right?”

“Rymrgand,” she mumbled.

“Did he have anything to say or did he just feel the need to waste your time?”

“It’s so nice to hear you talking about gods that way.”

“You taught me kith need to stop their blind obedience of them.”

“Furthermore.”

“What?”

“I hate those machines,” she mumbled.

“Do they draw from you as they draw from nearby victims?”

Vailond rolled to her side and clutched at her chest with her free hand, thinking about losing it to the rapacious machines. “No,” she said. “I’m okay.”

“The one does not imply the other.”

“I’m okay,” she repeated. “I’m just so tired. I don’t want to deal with what comes next.”

“You don’t have to decide that today.”

“I can find more machines,” she said. “But setting up a big flow—I mean, why? What does it buy us? The gods are just going to sabotage the whole thing. I need to talk to them.”

“And your plan?”

“I have to go to Teir Evron.”

“You will see Rymrgand again there.”

“I have to face him sometime.”

They were back up in the morning. Tekēhu was in the dining hall, laboring over a large sheet of paper, oblivious to the people eating and leaving around him.

He raised a finger, though, when Vailond stood. “Ah, Vail! Aloth! I had an idea for your pillar last night and had to stay up describing it. What do you think of this?”

“Did you get something to eat?” said Aloth.

“All in good time. Here.”

What Tekēhu had drawn in fine inky lines that Vailond realized must have come from his own headworms, was an angled pillar of adra rearing out of the excavation—the one outside—but with something running up the spine, then dripping down in a fine sparkling curtain down to the excavation’s edge.

Vailond could practically hear the song of the waterfall. “It’s beautiful.”

“That requires a steady water supply,” said Aloth. “Do you intend to reclaim?”

“What I can. But did you not clear these areas yourself? Six levels from the bottom is an underground stream. It needs only a little encouragement to soar again.”

“Tekēhu,” said Vailond.

Tekēhu beamed. “Vailond.”

“I’m trying to prevent the destruction of kithkind and you chose this moment to make something completely beautiful.”

“It is something I am confident in contributing.”

“Don’t ever change.”

“You could,” muttered Aloth. “A little.” But it was old exasperation.

Tekēhu relaxed. “Why would I, I say? I will let you know if I need materials…but one can find water, even in a country like this.”


	3. Gods' Will

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pillar flashes again. Vailond gathers a party for Teir Evron, and converses with the gods. She gets one pointed warning. Aloth wonders what he’s really doing here. (The story’s gore warning is for an eye injury in the final section of this chapter; section will be marked with *****)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Previously published as chapters 3 and 4.

**Skaen hates you all and resents in the dark,**

**Rebellion is violent when stamped with his mark**

  * Dyrwoodan children’s song



Flash. Thump. Vailond was out of Aloth’s arms, then in his arms for a confused tangle, then out of his arms again. No glass. They hadn’t replaced the glass from last time.

“How many?” groaned Vailond.

“Yours,” gasped Aloth, shoving cloth at her. Oh. Pants. She liked pants.

They ran out of the inn together, peering into the night.

“Watcher,” he said urgently. “Can you feel anyone?”

“Good,” she said. Of course he would say that. Her Watcher senses weren’t omnipotent, but she could get an idea if there were kith souls nearby.

“Only one,” she reported, running. “Two. Hey! Hey!”

“I have him,” came Ydwin’s voice. “It’s Bearn. I’ll bring him in.”

“Good. Thanks.”

Vailond didn’t sleep well. In the morning she answered a knock on the door to find Bearn. He looked tired beyond the wear of a single day.

“Yeah?” she said. “You okay?” She wasn’t exactly sure how else to talk to a teenager.

“No,” he said in a strangely thready voice. “I just thought you should know…that I… _love_ …powerful women.”

“Down!” The voice was familiar. Vailond ducked and reached back to take the knife from her bedframe. Bearn was swinging two skinny arms with knobbly fists at the end. And Ydwin, Ydwin pulled a gyroscope thing out of a metal case and spun a gear. The boy went down like a sack of rocks.

“Vailond,” Ydwin said, suddenly composed again. “Did he hurt you?”

“Not nearly as badly as I was about to hurt him. Is his soul Awakened? I…heard that’s what the pillar does.”

“Yes. Even I couldn’t tell until he started asking repetitive questions about you.” She tapped her chin. “Tyrhos growled at him on his way by.”

“How many of these Awakened people need restraint?”

“He would be the first.”

“Can you bring him back?”

“Can you?”

“I don’t know. I couldn’t help Aloth.”

“I have this aspect-surfacer device. But it doesn’t get rid of the Awakened aspect of his soul. It just ends the current session. I’ll see what I can do.”

“I’m going to meet with an old friend. A powerful cipher. She should help reduce your load.”

“I’m in favor,” she said dryly. “Help me get this one back to a cell?”

“So this is why you wanted me to keep some dungeon cells.”

Ydwin paused. “Y-yes,” she said. “Exactly.”

*

“He’s in a cage,” said Edér.

“His Awakened aspect found my bedroom and tried to attack me,” said Vailond. “Listen, this is temporary. Until we can suppress the Awakening.”

Edér glared at the jail cell, then at Vailond. “Which you went through a lot of trouble a few years back to establish can’t be done.”

“They used to tell me a lot of things couldn’t be done. I’m sorry, Edér. I know we need an answer too.”

“Give him Tyrhos.”

“What?”

“Tyrhos knows when his old soul self is in control. Let Tyrhos warn everyone. Keep Effort, too, so he can learn the ropes. Just don’t put my son in this…prison.”

Vailond gave it thought. “All right. And I’ll have Ydwin improve the lodgings for when there’s an outburst. In the meantime. I was hoping you could help me. I need ciphers. I…gods. My first thought was Serafen. But he’s free now.”

“He’s flaked out now,” said Edér. “I know you said you were letting him go, but I’d still like to turn his nose more purplish.”

“No. I need to find Mother.”

“Your mother?” said Edér. “In Aedyr? That’s a little far…”

Right. The Grieving Mother had lived under the glamor of an old peasant woman, forgettable. Vailond was immune, and she needed those skills.

“I need ciphers. And short of raiding Dunryd Row I don’t know where to find one I can trust.”

“A cipher? Her, you mean?”

“A damned good one.”

“And when did you meet her?”

“You were standing six feet to my left. I’ll try to explain…”

*

Dyrford was the better part of a day’s walk away. Edér used to visit Vailond, while they were mayor and lady-of-the-castle. Now they chatted about times gone by while Aloth, Tekēhu, and Kana caught one another up on questions of islands and plains.

It was hot, and Tekēhu started playing with the water from his waterskin “as a defense mechanism.” He made floating fish that farted, and sparkling curtains that refreshed Vailond as she passed through.

“You make this walk so much nicer,” she said.

“Hey, I wasn’t chopped liver,” said Edér, grinning.

“You were the best damn thing about this town. But! You’ve got a midwife herbalist lady who I really, really hope remembers me…”

“Because apparently we don’t remember her,” said Kana. “I do believe you, by the way.”

“Calling all our memories manipulated,” said Aloth. “If she is as powerful as you say…”

“She wants the cycle of life. She wants children born with souls. And she does remember you. Believe it or not, you were kind to her.”

“Perhaps this time she won’t feel the need to wipe all our memories,” hazarded Kana.

“I’ll ask her.”

The muddy, streaked road ran by the rebuilt mill. A woman came out of a side building to greet them. She was thinner than Vailond, and taller, with dusky eyes and smooth dark skin. Her black hair fluffed out past what Vailond could ever achieve with her short red hair.

She looked over the visitors and her eyes went wide. “Edér! Edér? Here?” She took a step, another, and practically danced to hug him. He hugged her back. Vailond could see the tips of his ears turning red.

“Talise,” he said nervously, “you’re looking well.”

“Are you really back?” She still excluded everyone around her. “We have another mayor, you know.”

“After a year, I’d hope so. Why don’t I introduce you around.”

Talise turned and stared Vailond down, or tried. “Yes, your friends,” she said tautly.

“That’s Vail. She’s a Watcher. She and Aloth and Tekēhu and I gave Eothas a talking-to that one time.”

Talise’s gaze had never left Vailond’s eyes. “You’re not staying, are you.”

“We just wanted to see Mother,” said Edér. “Then I’ll be out of your way.”

The man was going to get himself punched if he didn’t dodge better. “Mother and I go way back,” Vailond said stiffly.

“It was nice to meet you,” said Aloth in his best “please disengage” tone.

“Food’s on the table,” Talise said, sticking out her lower lip. “For now, anyway.”

“It’s been real good,” said Edér. “She’s in the same place, huh?”

Talise shrugged. “I guess.”

Vailond walked in a fog. Someone was…jealous, of her. Of what she had with Edér.

How amazing was that?

Edér cleared his throat beside her. “She’s always been like that,” he said uneasily. “We never. I never.”

“You hold out for whatever, Edér. I don’t think you and I do jealousy anymore.”

“Uh. Good?”

She laughed. “Come on, let’s reintroduce you.”

It was the same square by a little garden and a shaded wagon farmstand. She sat on a stool and her long fingers were weaving something, something red and gray and unknowable. Her face was plain and aged, her carriage a little slumped. She had a red string and a bracelet of silver chimes around her wrist.

“That’s not our Mother,” said Edér.

“Edér,” the old woman said in a voice as subtle and rich as the Grieving Mother had always used. “I remember your flagpiece. I could tell you what I saw.”

Edér’s eyes widened. “I’ll, uh. I’ll take your word. Unless you saw…”

She shook her head. The lines of her face were worn but gentle. “Our friend told you everything I could see. My memory would give you nothing more.”

“All right. So you’re a cipher.”

“And we have a problem with souls,” said Vailond. “Would you be willing to come back to Caed Nua? There’s a place to stay out of the way. You can keep your old glamor if you want, it’s just the guys here and my head animancer would want to see through it. Can you do that?”

“You are trying to dive into the cycle yourself,” said Grieving Mother. “Why?”

“I’m not trying to die. Not anytime soon. There are other souls that are already out there, though.”

Aloth stepped forward. “We’re going to Twin Elms to talk to the gods at Teir Evron.”

“It’s a long way,” said Edér. “We can get you a wagon for Caed Nua. Ydwin’ll get you set up.”

“A pale elf,” said Vailond, “The only one we have. She dresses like a Vailian fashion plate, you’ll know her right away. Don’t lie to her.”

“Understood,” said Grieving Mother. “Don’t call for a cart. You must explain on the way.”

“A capital idea,” murmured Kana.

“Just trying to talk to a god,” said Vailond. “They made that hard.”

“When you put it that way,” said Tekēhu, “it reminds me that we are going to see my mother. She has never made her wishes difficult to find in the past.”

“It is a magnificent temple,” Kana said cheerfully. “Built from within the trunks of the Twin Elms. Its interior is like polished glass, with constellations from beyond. Every god has a shrine.”

“Ah, yes,” said Mother. “I remember.”

With Mother on their spare horse they made six. The road to Twin Elms was pleasantly busy. Traffic to Caed Nua had stayed about the same, only with more gawkers. Vailond hadn’t always appreciated traffic, but somewhere along the line, busy had become pleasant.

Vailond rode beside Aloth and looked at him often from the corner of her eye. He often smiled, even when they hadn’t been saying anything.

They camped by the roadside. Edér folded his jacket into a pillow for Mother, who accepted it with faded grace. A fragrant breeze blew from the meadow, easing away the sticky heat of the day.

Vailond pulled Aloth a few paces away.

“Here?” he whispered, sounding harried.

“No,” she whispered, and scrambled around to lie so that they were chin to forehead and forehead to chin, and laughed. “Remember?”

He understood, as she knew he would. “Remember? You lying to me about the constellations?”

“I still remember Bear, Other Bear, and Third Bear. It got fuzzy after that.”

“Wait, you didn’t even know a fixed list?”

“After that…it never seemed like there was time to mess with it, until we went to sea.”

“Many of the same constellations.”

“More bears.”

“You are nothing if not faithful to your ideas, my love.” He still made that phrase a little breathy, a little unbelieving. A little bit happiest anybody had ever been anywhere ever.

“Do you think we’ll get an answer that is anything other than a new mountain of animancy?”

“Almost certainly not, I fear.”

“Will you work with me anyway?”

“I will. Someone’s got to keep the animancers in check.”

“Mm. I may have to hold you to that.”

“Kindly do. I wouldn’t leave you alone with them for long.”

“And the gods?”

“We made a way without them before. This meeting should only reinforce our independence. Remember how they asked us to perform tasks in exchange for a faint favor in the very seat of their power? They can’t have gotten any stronger since then.”

She turned her head and kissed him, unhurried and sweet. They stayed secure in one another’s quiet breathing until the feral night noises lulled her to sleep.

*

Vailond dreamed in the fireplace room. The forest behind her could no longer be smelled. The fire blazed under the mantel wall to wall. The raw-boned armchair stood before it.

The man, the big man, the black-haired man, was pushing up from the armchair. He went to stand facing the fire.

“Vailond,” he said in a deep voice. “The adra is restless.”

No time to waste asking big questions. “How do I make it stop doing that?”

“Speak with Rymrgand. But don’t do it at Teir Evron.”

“What?”

“Is that where you’re going? Vailond, as you value your soul, _turn back_.”

This wasn’t going like the average dream. It was even less impressive. “Who the hell are you?”

The man spun. His face was shadowy and clean-shaven, features firm and clear-edged as stone. His eyes were green, like adra itself. “I know the gods’ minds,” he said, “and I know you seek to control the souls in the In-Between. And I believe that those two will clash in blood.” He frowned and looked her up, then down, then up, shaking his head at every detail. “Do not go to their fortress. Turn back. I will find a way to protect you.”

“Ah. Ha. No. Who. The Hell. Are you.”

“My name is Trask.” His chiseled mouth turned down. “Be careful where you say that.”

“Why do you care? You don’t even know me.”

“Many eyes are upon you, Watcher. You knew this.”

“It doesn’t mean I’ve accepted it.”

“My brethren will tear you apart if you are unaided.”

Vailond chewed on that for a minute.

In the end she laughed. Loud. “Are you calling yourself a god?”

He stayed perfectly still, but for a twitch of his cheek. “Were you ever in the In-Between in a spot with doors? One god was through its door. Berath.” He closed his eyes. His voice was like a snake sliding back through its own skin. “There are eleven gods. But there are twelve doors.

“Did you hear the chimes? Berath’s, deep in your heart. The others outside, perhaps less valuable to you. There are eleven gods. But there were twelve chimes.”

Vailond hugged herself. In a very tough, impressive way. “Do you know Berath and the others? Seriously?”

“My brethren? Intimately, for better or worse. And I know that nowhere are they more self-involved than in their ancient seat at Teir Evron. You are better off seeking answers with your kith friends at Caed Nua.”

“And why are you trying to scare me away?”

Did he blink? Ever? “Because they can kill you, and will, if they think they can do it without inspiring a dozen replacements.”

“Only I am a Watcher.”

“Your animancers will fix that uniqueness. Don’t expect it to protect you for much longer. I…have seen many things. I wish to protect you from the gods who have trampled your kind for, oh, time out of mind.”

“Very cute, ‘Trask.’ So you know some names, so you…I didn’t count them. All right? I didn’t count twelve. I don’t want your help.”

He closed the distance between them in some dream-blurred number of steps and reached out to lay a palm on her shoulder. It hurt like rough stone left in the sun. She jerked back.

“Vailond,” he said hoarsely, “don’t prod them at their center of power,” and the dream ended.

Vailond rolled to her back and stiffened. That was _not_ how gods usually spoke to her and it was not her idea of a good time and, honestly, she wouldn’t mind the uncontrollable Watcher soulview back if it insulated her from whatever that was.

“Aloth?” she whispered. “Are you awake?”

“Vail? What’s wrong?”

She curled up against his side. “I think…I think if everybody on Eora went insane, you would be the one talking us down.”

“Are you planning on going insane?” he said blearily.

Too late. But Trask was a puzzle, and he was a puzzle she would prefer to suppress or figure out on her own time. If she was lucky the figment would just never come back. She knew she wasn’t that lucky. “No. Good night.”

“My love.” He slid an arm over her and seemed to be asleep instantly.

She felt the heat on her cheeks and her shoulder, but under his shelter she slept again, soundly this time.

*

“Do you remember the drake cave at the hot springs? Do you remember Persoq’s cliff? Do you remember the Skaenite underground?” Vailond’s party chattered and they kept up a stiff pace. Even Mother seemed eager to pass the miles. Tekēhu got an exhaustive course in what the others had done with Vailond, six years ago, when a Watcher was needed.

And then they neared Twin Elms.

It was Glanfathan territory, belonging to the tribes who had guarded adra deposits since the ancient Engwithans finished building their gods and leaving the world. There were Glanfathan guards at the gate. Vailond waved dismissively at them. “I have seen the gods, and they have answered my questions. Let me pass.”

“The Watcher,” whispered one to the other. “Honored one, be at peace in Twin Elms.”

She nodded curtly and brought her friends through the wooden arc of the gate.

“Looks about the same,” judged Edér. Twin Elms was a garden, a forest, and a city all at once. The paths were soft with pine needles under the groves and standing titans. Every path up and down was described in tiers by powerful root systems. Buildings were curves under flower-spangled turf, and the smoke from their stone-bound chimneys smelled of the wild. Citizens here patrolled and laughed, many with animal companions, most openly carrying weapons – and yet the prevailing sense was one of woodland peace. The hunt and the kill had their place, and it was not on these streets.

The young wolves Consideration and Malda looked in all directions as if they had discovered paradise. They barked at Vailond and Edér, then set to exploring.

“Should I leave them alone?” said Vailond, grinning.

“I’d hate to see them piss on the floor in Teir Evron,” Edér said meditatively. “Then again, maybe wild animals just get to do that.”

“We’d better go.”

“Right. After you.”

It took some riding. Their destination became obvious amid the tree cover above: there was one pair of trunks, twinned in size and rising hundreds of feet above the forest. These were the heart of the Glanfathan city. These were the Twin Elms.

And Vailond dismounted to go straight for the entrance.

*

The road was broad, the paths into forest and stone cave numerous. Vailond didn’t hesitate under the dappling of the sun. The path narrowed between high root ridges over a stream. Two delemgar flanked the way: women of expected kith size but of bark and leaf, their eyes ringed by years beyond Vailond’s reckoning. One raised a hand toward Vailond as she approached. Vailond, for her part, slowed.

“Sîdha,” she said. “Rîhenwn. Once you told me that there was no way out of my personal hell. Do you have anything to add?”

“Watcher,” said Sîdha. “I do not know whether the gods will answer your call.”

“I have to try.”

“You have always respected our lands,” said Rîhenwn. “And now the adra itself favors you. Our people may seek you out.”

“As long as they stay at a safe distance from the adra.”

“And so you finally understand our ways. Go in peace.”

The stairs into Teir Evron might have been a natural root formation. People thought that the Glanfathans made nothing of their own to last, but Twin Elms gave that the lie. Vailond climbed.

The lowermost chamber under the twining elms was maybe thirty paces across. Twelve shrines stood in a circle.

Twelve. _Oh, gods._ _Trask was serious_.

The space beneath her feet was perfectly smooth. As Vailond’s companions fanned out around her, the numberless rings of the trees’ interior swirled and melted into a night-blue. One by one constellations appeared next to the shrines: a horned beast for Galawain, an eye for Wael.

Ten appeared. Eothas’ shrine was a planted arrangement of crystals; after all, he was dead. All the way opposite him, the twelfth shrine looked like it had always been a decorative arrangement. These people did not venerate Trask. Perhaps that was the reason he’d wanted her to stay away.

Vailond waved her companions back against the wall. She walked over Galawain’s sigil, shivering on the way, until she reached the pillar at the center.

“Anyone?” she said. “I can start.”

Silence. The air did not stir. The only light came from the stars beneath her feet.

“Fine,” she said. “You guys kicked me around like a tetherball for months, and now apparently I’m the one who has to explain herself.” She thought about mentioning Trask. Her heart quailed. “Look, you lost. Eothas destroyed the Wheel. It’s up to kith to make a new one, or whatever system can move people from the end of one life to the start of another. You have the ability to do this without moving from wherever your divine asses are. But it’s our problem, because I said kith should get the chance.

“Petty much?

“I don’t know which one of you shoved the adra in my front yard. Maybe you don’t want the others to know. Maybe that’s more interference than you were supposed to give. Well, look, I don’t know what you think I was going to do with it, but it’s out of your hands now. I hope you know that.

It’s out of your hands.

“Which one of you wants to step forward and say you’re finished meddling with us? Magran? I’m about to test every soul in the In-Between. Abydon? Do you have any idea what we’re going to build with that adra? Rymrgand? You do not own the dead souls even if they do pile up.

“Anyone? Are you listening?”

Her friends’ breathing sounded in the stillness like a broadside of Deadfire cannons. There was no other sound.

“Eothas? Are you back in play yet? You can die to the Godhammer or die to the Wheel but I won’t believe you’re really gone until stupid things stop happening to me. Galawain? Let me take this hunt myself, and we will not cross trails. Woedica? If that pillar is yours I’ll gnaw it to the ground and spit it out in the cesspool. But, Skaen, if it’s yours I will make it a spot of law. Wael? Are you just throwing random things at me to see how react? Because I will make something of it. Ondra? Were you trying to get rid of me? Because I’m coming back to your place when all this is done. You always did right by me. I don’t forget that.

“Berath…fuck. I don’t know what to say. I feel like if you’ve started this, you’re not finished. But I’ll go on. You know how stubborn I am.”

“You _all_ know. So who wants to explain the last two weeks to me?”

Then it started.

“It” was her being desperate.

“Who sent the adra pillar? Is it going away?”

She walked past a shrine to another.

“Why is the pillar soul flashing? Will you stop it?”

She walked past a shrine to another.

“Anybody else screwing with souls in the Dyrwood? You don’t even have to tell me what, I just want the heads-up.”

She walked past a shrine to another.

“Who sent the adra pillar? Is it going away?”

She backtracked. “What is it? Do you want me to do you a quest? Say you a prayer? Earmark you a percentage of the souls coming through the new system? That last is not happening. Give me something. Give me something! I stopped Woedica from shoving you all in the closet in the Dyrwood! I helped all of you figure out what Eothas was up to in the Deadfire!”

The image in front of Vailond’s face was stunning. An old, old man, dressed in ratty formal wear, standing in front of a pale knight in black armor. “See how that ended,” said the Usher who was Berath. He raised two fingers to waist height, then faded.

Two? What did two mean? “So what, I have to start again from nothing because I didn’t stop one of you?” She didn’t appeal to fairness. She knew the gods that well. “Is there anything else you want to add? Because I’m all ears.”

Silence in Teir Evron. She could scream. She nearly did.

Aloth could hold out no longer. He was watching his lover’s hopes die. “I can’t believe all of you,” he said. “Does not one of you want to be the one who aided the next age of mortals? Or are you all afraid to look past the power structures that have fossilized around you? Kith are on the rise. You would do well to learn to live with them.”

That was how the afternoon went: demands and silences, pacing and waiting. She touched each shrine in turn and got no response. Except the twelfth, the little crystal cluster. That felt like hot stone to the touch, then went inert.

“I can keep this up,” called Vailond. “I guess you can, too. But I want it more.

“Giving flashes that Awaken people? You’re flaying my people’s _souls_ and that is _not_ okay.

“I’ve got your son right here, Ondra. I will continue being nice to him. I’m just sweet that way. But he’s helping me.

“Magran, if this isn’t a worthy trial, you’re just holding me to the impossible.”

“Vail?” Aloth crept into her field of view. “Vail, it’s been hours. Take something to drink.”

“They’ll answer. They have to answer.”

He raised a skin to her lips. “Drink.”

She did, impatiently.

And returned to her prayers. “Come on. Just promise to stop fucking the pillar and I’ll call the rest of it even.

“Remember when we first did this? Woedica’s little cult had the Hollowborn curse all over the Dyrwood. I needed to get divine approval to enter that miserable hole where her pet cultist was hiding. You gave me tasks. You gave me things to do. You let me do something, and when I did that something you helped me. That’s how it worked. It was simple. So what now? Do you just not need anything? Or are you afraid I’ll do it too well?”

A glow came up from the shrine of crossed hammers. Vailond stopped dead.

“Laborer.” It was the clanging voice of the smith god Abydon, ringing from his little shrine. “You said you would take it from here.”

“Then someone stuck a soul-flaying adra pillar in my front yard! One of you broke the terms first!”

But they did not answer. Into the hours of the night, they did not answer. Until Edér and Aloth dragged her to eat, they did not answer.

She mounted and curled over herself. “What a waste,” she groaned. “What a complete waste!”

“Vail,” said Edér. “We’ll have to go forward on what we have.”

She had thought up a pretty good speech about how all gods are bastards. She thought about delivering it. But, no. They had work to do at home.

Caed Nua. Home. Always.

Malda and Consideration emerged from a forested path and stopped just shy of spooking Vailond’s horse. “Hey,” she said.

They growled and turned around, looking into the shadows of the path. Vailond brought up her crossbow. “What is it?” she said.

A bear. It was a bear with no markings except for ragged patches of fur, who knew, maybe it had a companion around here, but at the moment it was charging her wolves. It trailed froth from its mouth as it charged.

“Someone’s pet?” said Edér.

One bolt. The bear dropped. She hooked her crossbow back on its strap.

“I hope not,” she said. No one fought her, all the way back to the lower roads of the city.

*

Aloth had had a lot of time to think while Vailond was calling the gods to account. And his thoughts were the settling and integration of several past concerns. He felt an ache in his heart and he didn’t know why.

Well, that was a lie. He knew.

Vailond had her crossbow and her castle, her pals and her purpose. She rode without looking at him, stopped without checking for him. Oh, Aloth had been useful while they were traveling through hostile territory, fighting off assassins and pirates. But those days were behind them now. He warmed her bed, he gave her advice which, in her headstrong nature, was only a suggestion.

Look at her, facing down the gods. Look at her, taking a sip of water and then rising above him again.

He could love that forever, but should he? Did he fit? Did he matter? For five years he had dismantled the world’s reliance on gods. He’d used his skills every day. He‘d spoken with righteous authority. Was that slipping away?

“You two thinking about kids?”

Aloth coughed and looked around at the path they were walking. “What!?”

“Little elves,” said Edér. “You bathe ‘em and send ‘em to school and stuff.”

Aloth’s heart surged. From his earliest independent days leaving an abusive home and a thankless education, he had always assumed he would be alone. Vail…Vail blurred the shape of that life. But he couldn’t see her carrying a child, couldn’t see her wanting to be tied down to one place and two people. She was still solitary in her heart. That was the whole problem.

“I don’t know,” he said. “She is so much in the moment, even I forget to plan the future, at least anything dramatic.”

“You should talk to her. I think she’d be a great mom. Maybe cushion the little ones some before handling, but a great mom.”

“I’m not sure you realize how…completely self-contained, Vail is. Everything I think of, she already has a plan or a reason why it isn’t that important. I would gladly give her children. But I can’t guarantee that will change our dynamic as much as I wish it would.” He sighed. “I wish she really needed me for _something_.”

“That ain’t something for kids to solve,” Edér said soberly.

“I know. I imagine I’ll see the solution when it arises. Someday.” If he should wait for it.

*

Malda stopped in the street. Vailond eyed her. “What is it?”

She bounded to a bigger brown wolf that was standing by a Glanfathan villager.

“Stay in sight,” warned Vailond. She wasn’t the only person around here with a crossbow.

Malda jumped back and forth, ready to play. Vailond had to smile. The other wolf pounced and they want down in a flashing ball of fur. Consideration trotted up close and howled as if commentating. The brown one sent a wipe his way only to be rolled forcibly away by Malda.

The villager looked Vailond up and down. “Maegla! This wolf two is of you?”

“Both of them,” she said. “Yours is very strong.”

“Ha! They play at it.” For a moment both of them just watched the writhing tangle of wolf.

“All right, Malda, let’s go get something to eat. No, you can’t eat her.”

Malda yowled without slowing down.

“I said no. Come on.”

“I’m glad we separated her and Effort,” said Edér. “I doubt those two would stop.”

“We need to be careful overnight. Open road tomorrow.”

*

There were stables under the Celestial Sapling and Vailond’s party left their horses there. The wolves left the horses nervous, so Vailond took them with her. The kith and wolves took the creaky lift up to the common room, which was built to twist and turn into and out of the vast tree’s trunk.

Vailond curled her hands around a tankard and wondered what she could do differently. Around her, her friends talked away the tension of the day’s long hours.

The Grieving Mother did not grieve so much these days. The Watcher had named her from what she had seen in her heart. But that was after fifteen years of the curse, of the Hollowborn children born without souls. Yes. Mother grieved then.

Everything was different now. Dyrford was a land of dreams and blessings, where a cipher could grant soul energy and the hope of future luck, where being a midwife was a joy more than a tragedy. Mother could gladly do this all her days, the bringing, the cutting and the consecration.

Yet the Watcher had strode out of the past. A Hollowborn curse threatened the world, threatened to stop souls coming back to new bodies, threatened to make death a true end and life for the remaining a joyless hell.

Mother did not much care who turned the workings of the universe, so long as they were kind. These seemed an impossible goal. Even Vailond had her sharp edges, and a soul was a delicate thing, vulnerable past the understanding of those who had grown up and grown into them.

“I never saw Caed Nua after the Eothas statue destroyed it,” she said quietly to Vailond. “Is it returned to its former status?”

“With more space blocked off. Yes. It’s been built up better than ever.”

“Is the chapel still there?”

“It’s currently being used by animancers as office space.”

“I see.”

“Did it matter to you? I can change it back, the animancers can always just expand in the basement.”

“That is your choice, Vailond. Not mine.”

“Well, I’ll have you your quiet space when we get back. All right? Until then there’s a grove growing behind the keep. I think it’s peaceful.”

“I see. Thank you.”

Edér was enjoying the mead. The Glanfathans had funny ideas about (not) cooking meat, but their drinks could not be faulted. He saw his Consideration applying himself to exploring the room, while smaller Malda trotted behind. They were good dogs. Really, every dog was a good dog, but Tyrhos’s three puppies were particularly wonderful.

“Do you remember hearing about Raedric here?” said Aloth. “I’m still suspicious when I look around.”

“Raedric needed killing. Again. Huh, does anybody in this country just stay dead?”

“Skaenite cults.”

“I hope so.”

Kana was singing a snatch of something to someone. Someone else noticed. “Chanter! Tell us a story about beautiful women!”

“Beautiful women?” Kana said dramatically.

“And skirts, there must be skirts!”

“I know just the story for you!”

Vailond had heard it. She snickered and went on with her drink. The story of the townsmen who had dressed as women to declare to an invading army that the town posed no threat was a good one. The central song, a bawdy one about the respective looks of the bearded women and their lovely wives, was a fine choice, and Kana rolled into it with glee.

“Aloth,” called Kana, “Vail once taught me an Aedyran ballad about the lusty milkmaid!”

“You did?” Edér said cheerfully. “I remember her. Not the song, as such…”

“You could leave me out of this,” groaned Aloth.

“You must help me with the chorus! Here we go, ladies and gentlekith!”

It was a noisy, crowded, alcoholic kind of evening. Vailond had missed that. Oh, roads could be long and gods could be a pain, but she had friends.

She went bed late, and cheerfully.

*

Vailond felt it. Just like in the Deadfire. Some core in her was looped and pulled.

It was a small platform made of tiles that shimmered and passed colors back and forth. Around her hung the swirling murk of the In-Between.

“Yay,” said Vailond. “Berath, what do you want?”

“Berath, Berath, Berath.” The snickering came from every direction at once. The sound of visible hanging bells overwhelmed the words. Breathless, Vailond counted. Twelve chimes.

Something slithered to the edge of the platform and started swelling. As Vailond watched it expanded up and up, each bubble developing an eye.

“Wael,” she said. Her confidence faltered. There was no predicting the god of secrets. She couldn’t control when it gave chase.

Its voice came from several directions. A few of its bubbles developed red-lipped mouths as well. “Do you feel proud of yourself, little monster? Your solution will never be made public. When you fail, the living kith will know all your hopes, and know them dashed.”

“Animancers will know how the replacement works. You can’t hide that information.”

Something stepped from behind the eye monster. The newcomer was gaunt and yellowed, black-eyed and bent over. Its nose and ears had been cut off.

“Skaen.” This had just gone from unpredictable to catastrophic. “Anyone else? Magran? Woedica?” She would take any ally. Any ally at all.

Skaen gave a clacking laugh. “You want to rule the dead? Rip and tear. Let soul fragments fight it out. Let them overwhelm fat souls. Let them fall between the cracks.”

“No. If anything we need stronger souls pulled together.”

“Consider well, elf.”

“I have. My replacement to the Wheel will strengthen kith souls. They won’t be gods but they will maintain their own place in the world.”

“This is your vision?”

“Yes.”

*****

“Inadequate. Come closer.” Vailond did not. Suddenly she felt an icy touch on her cheek and jaw. She jerked away and the chill spread to her cheekbones, her neck, a terrible seizure.

The pain was in her right eye. For a second she thought she was crying. Still in the icy grip, she brought up a hand to touch the hot liquid.

It was blood.

“No,” she said, her voice strangled, her body trapped. “No. No! Stop! _No_!”

“Wael! Wael, _look_ at this!”

Her pulse pounded. The blood flowed. The pain was stabbing around an absence, and the icy grip loosed. “I always wanted to do that,” murmured Skaen.

“You _do_ do that,” said Wael, chuckling with several mouths at once.

All faded together.

### End of Act 1/4


	4. Begin Book 2: The Story So Far

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A narrator and guests describe the plot that has led to the beginning of Book 2 of Trap and Release. I would've put this in Chapter 1 but I felt like the fact dump wouldn't be a good way to start the story. Consider this a refresher!

*wordless clapping*  
\- Dyrwoodan children’s song, to be clapped every twelfth verse

\---

Narrator: The eleven gods are not the creators of Eora.  
Woedican cultist: Objection! Irrelevant.  
Narrator: They were synthesized from the souls of the ancient Engwithans.  
Narrator: Twenty-two centuries later,  
Skaenite cultist: My lord feasts.  
Narrator: Ahem. Twenty years ago,  
Eothasian cultist: Ooh, me, me!  
Narrator: The god Eothas transfigured a human host and led a Readceran army against the Dyrwood.  
Eothasian cultist: #Eothasdidnothingwrong  
Narrator: The fighter Edér's brother fought for Readceras. Edér fought for the Dyrwood. His brother did not survive.  
Woedican cultist: Objection! Boring.  
Narrator: The Magranite priest Durance helped build the Godhammer: the weapon that destroyed Eothas and ended the war.  
Eothasian cultist: He's only mostly dead.  
Narrator: Meanwhile, Woedica gathered power in the Leaden Key sect.  
Woedican cultist: Yess!  
Narrator: After the war, the Dyrwood was ravaged by the curse of the Hollowborn: kith babies born without souls.  
Skaenite cultist: Eeheehee...  
Woedican cultist: Oh, like you helped.  
Narrator: The Grieving Mother—  
Woedican cultist: Objection! Overwrought.  
Narrator: The Grieving Mother served as midwife, sometimes using her considerable cipher talents to conceal the fact of the curse from parents. Then: Six years ago, Vailond Dugauer Awakened as a Watcher.

  
(Pillars of Eternity: Lady Vail’s Pack)

Skaenite and Woedican cultists: Hssss  
Narrator: She met the veteran Edér...  
Eothasian cultist: Good man.  
Narrator: and the Leaden Key operative, Aloth.  
Woedican cultist: Formerly good man.  
Narrator: Aloth was in Gilded Vale to monitor and discourage animancy, the art of controlling souls.  
Skaenite cultist: But he betrayed his masters and joined the Watcher! A man after my own heart, more or less.  
Narrator: Vailond gathered allies: Edér, Aloth, Durance, Grieving Mother, and also Kana, Sagani, Pallegina, and Hiravias. They found the reason for the Hollowborn curse: the goddess Woedica had sent her Leaden Key agents to steal unborn souls away in a bid to destroy animancy and take over the pantheon.  
Woedican cultist: Objection! You have no proof.  
Eothasian cultist: Thaos described the entire thing. In detail. With autographed pamphlets.  
Woedican cultist: Shameless libel.  
Narrator: Vailond gathered the support of the wronged gods at Teir Evron and killed Woedica’s chief agent. She returned him to the Wheel of reincarnation so he can keep his own disgrace in his soul forever. Woedica was stymied, but not damaged.  
Woedican cultist, humming: I get knocked down, but I get up again…  
Narrator: Meanwhile, Vailond rebuilt the ruined castle of Caed Nua. Then, a year ago…  
Eothasian cultist: Yes yes me me me…

(Pillars of Eternity 2: Lady Vail and the Island Trail)

Narrator: Eothas rose in the form of a giant statue buried beneath Caed Nua, killing most of its residents and nearly shredding Vailond. Eothas walked straight for the Deadfire Archipelago, and Edér picked Vailond up to bring her closer to him.  
Woedican cultist: Objection! If Vailond can kill Thaos I should get to kill Vailond.  
Skaenite cultist: Oh, I haven’t seen an agonizing death all week. Good luck with that.  
Narrator: Together the kith sailed on the Defiant to meet Aloth and the priestess Xoti. Representatives of the major colonial factions sailed with her: Maia of the Rauatai, Pallegina of the Vailian Republics, Tekēhu of the Huana, and Serafen of the Principi sen Patrena. She pursued romance with Serafen—  
Skaenite cultist: Bored now.  
Woedican cultist: Objection: orlan sex is gross.  
Eothasian cultist: *listens politely*  
Narrator: Vailond got repeated, unwanted commentary from the gods as they sought to block Eothas’ plan.  
Eothasian cultist: But they didn’t stop him!  
Narrator: No. Eothas swept to the lost island of Ukaizo and destroyed the Wheel of reincarnation.  
Eothasian cultist: It was a tool of the tyranny of the gods and it was worthy of sacrificing his life—  
Woedican cultist: Is it really a sacrifice if you do it twice?  
Eothasian cultist: To bring kith and gods into a new balance!  
Skaenite cultist: Granted, without the Wheel souls would stop cycling back into the world and eventually we would run out of souls and have nothing but Hollowborn until the species die out…  
Woedican cultist: My goddess did inform Vailond that kith couldn’t handle this responsibly.  
Narrator: Serafen moved on, but Aloth stayed. Six months ago Vailond set out on the sea with no quest, no fight, and no grudge. Only Aloth and the open sea.  
Woedican cultist: Objection! Sappy.

  
(Pillars of Eternity: Trap and Release)

  
Narrator: Weeks ago, a shaft of soul-channeling luminous adra grew at Caed Nua out of the pit that Eothas had torn.  
Eothasian cultist: Taking credit.  
Skaenite cultist: Shut up, your god’s dead.  
Narrator: Vailond doesn’t know why it’s there, but they’ve got one lifetime to figure out the soul problem before the Hollowborn begin again.  
Woedican cultist: Remember that part about inability to act responsibly? This. This here.  
Narrator: She has friendly animancers working on restoring a cycle of reincarnation. In the meantime the pillar has a habit of Awakening people to their own souls’ previous lives, giving the soul-sensitive wolf Tyrhos plenty to guard.  
Woedican cultist: Objection! I would’ve gotten away with it too if it weren’t for that meddling dog.  
Narrator: Vailond and friends went to the seat of the gods at Teir Evron to ask why this obvious god-meddling is happening. She got no reply, except that Skaen put out her eye.  
Skaenite cultist: Ssbbbbffffftahahaha…  
Narrator: One person had warned her against her mission to Teir Evron. The man named Trask appears only in dreams, and she doesn’t know what to think of him yet.  
_silence_...


	5. Lost and Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More friends arrive. Vailond adapts to her injury. Galawain and Trask individually have words with Vailond. Vailond returns to Clîaban Rilag, which is full of memories. This chapter is about Vailond dealing with her eye and Aloth at once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of this chapter deals with the first aid rendered to Vailond after the loss of her eye. If you want to skip the details, go to *****.

Galawain, lord of the hunt, will respect

Courage, ferocity, from the elect

\- Dyrwoodan children’s song

Vailond woke up screaming. The pain in her missing eye was beyond comprehension.

Aloth had his hand on her arm. “Vail? It was a dream.”

“No,” she said thickly. She wiped her hand across her hot cheek and it came away dark with blood. “No, look. Skaen. Skaen, he took my eye.”

“Good gods.” Aloth sat up and opened the curtain to let in the morning light. “Good gods. We need to bandage—that—there’s nothing _there_.”

The horror on his face cut deeper than she’d expected. “Don’t look at me. Get away from me!”

“Please, Vailond, you’re hurting, I can help.”

“Oh? Where’s my eye, Aloth? Did you spot it?”

“A bandage.”

“Stay away from me.”

He was tearing the sheet. He balled up a length of cloth. “Put pressure on it.”

“Get out.”

“Vail.” His hands stopped moving. “My love. We need to limit the damage.”

She wanted to fight more, but the pain in her head was starting to white out her remaining vision. “Fine,” she whispered. “I’m thirsty.”

There was pain. Then there was a skin at her lips. “Slowly,” murmured Aloth. “That’s it.”

“Vail?” it was Edér. “What…what _happened_?”

“Skaen,” said Aloth. “My speech got a reaction. A little late. If it was really something I said…”

“Pretty sure that reaction is out of bounds no matter what you said. Durance—Xoti—”

“Ye know they’re far away, and they’ve nye cures for missing parts.” Iselmyr’s voice, unwelcome at the best of times, now actively hurt. Maybe Aloth was lost and hurting, but Vailond wanted him back so he could go away and leave her in peace. “A poultice o’ blood moss and Saint Gyran’s Horn is needful to keep it from going black.”

“On it,” said Edér.

“Get Tekēhu before you go,” said a green-looking Aloth.

The pain didn’t admit a lot of conversation. Someone was clinging to her hand. Aloth.

Tekēhu gave a little exhalation that scared Vailond more than the rest together. “Mother’s mercy,” he whispered. “Vail. Is there anything…left, in there?”

“I didn’t scoop to see,” she said thickly.

“Here. I can stop the bleeding. What happened?”

“Skaen,” said Aloth.

“Ekera, then he answered her prayers. In signature style.”

The energy from Tekēhu’s druidic attention soothed the pain, but not the anger. Tekēhu reached energy into the space Vailond’s eye no longer occupied. “I cannot rebuild it,” whispered Tekēhu. “The pain?”

“The s—soc—the empty part doesn’t hurt. I have a headache in general.”

He passed his big blue hand over her face. “The best thing for you right now is rest, I say.”

“No. We have to get back to Caed Nua. We have to see how Ydwin is doing with god-fucking.”

Edér reappeared in the door. “Materials on the way. You just lost a body part. Now I’ve seen people get right back in the saddle after that but they’re hopeless within hours. Lie back.”

Kana passed in. “Vailond. What a cruel indignity. I could sing for you.”

Her head throbbed at the thought. “Not now.”

*****

Then, just Grieving Mother. She stood at Vailond’s bedside with the quiet firmness of one who had ministered at many bedsides before. “I can make you forget.”

Here, where people would know she was leaning on someone’s charity? Besides, she wanted to keep her hate up. “No.”

Vailond let her head fall to her bad side, and dozed. She was horribly tired. Maybe the blood loss was bad.

It would be strange to say that she knew the sound of Aloth’s breathing, but she heard his breathing and knew it was him. “You’re looking,” she rasped. “I can feel it.”

“Don’t send me away,” he said. “I’ve brought you some water.”

“I can _see_ that,” she hissed, looking up at his hands and the waterskin. “Give it here.” She uncapped and drank. “Are we prepared to go back?”

“We are. I’ve found a cart, you can rest.”

“Don’t treat me like an invalid.”

“You’ve just undergone a brutal physical ordeal and you can only heal if you give yourself permission to rest.”

“Heal? Heal, Aloth? Should I expect my eye back if I rest well enough?”

“There’s more to healing than that. You can eke out survival from even less.” He raised something. “We got Iselmyr’s poultice, Just lay it over your…the wound.”

“Okay,” she mumbled, settling the poultice into place. “You have to promise not to stare. I don’t want your pity.”

Beside the bed, Aloth leaned toward Vailond. “Do you really think, after all we’ve been through, I could meaningfully pity you? This isn’t pity. If you lost a leg, I would be your crutch. If you lost your hair, I would love your scalp. If you lost everything but your incredible heart, I would pulse it for you.”

“And if I lost that?”

He touched her good cheek. “You never will.”

She hooked his wrist with her fingers. “Give me space.”

“Understand that you don’t have to be alone in it.” He pulled out a kerchief. “You can tie this around for now.”

It was soft. She accepted it.

And she willed herself to feel better. The pain kept her in bed, here in the dubious embrace of the Celestial Sapling.

Eventually the others left her alone. She would, in theory, rest then. She lay awake and wondered whether Trask would come back. He was a god. Could he heal her? Would he? She would trust no god again. But she couldn’t put this concern on her friends. She would keep him to herself. And, if necessary, she would shove him into that dream room’s fire, same as any enemy.

She tried to rest. The pain was less, except when she thought of the future.

*

Durance flailed and spat in his sleep. Maia looked down on him. Pity wouldn’t be the word. No sane person would pity him after what he’d rambled about. He’d been an unclean priest and a worse heretic. She looked down on him with a wish that he could be something other than what he very obviously was.

A madman and a complete asshole.

Durance stretched out on his back and pawed below his waist. “Oh,” he said, and sat up. “Memory blurs, when your previous weeks’ memory are all the exact same thing.”

“Do you want to tell me about Eothas?”

“No.”

“The Godhammer?”

“No.”

“I know Magran had something to do with building it. You’re a priest of Magran. What did you learn?”

“That a god’s wet favors are not for sale, even in common cause.”

“Magranites set up the Godhammer. Did you know any?”

“It is not for a priest to know. It is for him to obey. Perhaps, it is for him to avenge.”

“Do you want vengeance on Magran? The world is becoming a dangerous place. A Godhammer would be a wise precaution.” Nothing. “Do you want to tell me about Vailond?”

They had been over this. They had been over this repeatedly. Vailond was, apparently, another whore. To be fair, Maia had seen her banging one man while falling in love with another over the course of months, but “whore” seemed excessive.

“Vailond had no questions about the Saint’s War. She never understood her plight because she was incurious. Too caught up in the lusts of the moment to think of the future.”

“She’s back in Caed Nua. Running the place.”

“As she did for years. And as she will until it falls in ruins around her ears. You cannot use her. Those who do find themselves…” he looked around himself. “Ah.”

“And just what did you want to use her for?”

“There is only one answer to that. Where is my staff?”

Maia blinked. He hadn’t asked that before. “It’s in storage. You’re not getting it back until we’ve had our conversation about the Godhammer. Or…soul-directing machines?”

Durance leered. “You know a puny amount, so you ask enormous questions. I am finished with you today.” He sat down, crossed his arms over his chest, and shut his mouth.

Maia planted her feet, crossed her arms over her chest, and glared. “Whatever you told Vailond, about the Godhammer, about reincarnation, you’re going to tell me. And we will compete. A Godhammer should discourage anyone from messing with Rauatai’s system. Even gods.”

He did not answer, and she did not try again, except to wait. If he wanted to match stubbornness, she would oblige.

*

Aloth staggered out of the bedroom looking like he’d been haunted seventeen ways simultaneously.

“Is she resting?” said Edér.

“It’s hard to tell. She’s in a great deal of pain, and she won’t talk to me.”

“You know her. She has to find a place to hide to lick her wounds.”

“This isn’t a metaphor! This is her eye, and I didn’t save it! I, I wished that she would need me and this is what happened.”

“What you said has nothing to do with what the gods did. You know that.”

Aloth took on the stillness of a man trying not to disintegrate. “I can’t help her.”

“That’s a lie. Just be with her. We’ll get her comfortable at Caed Nua. If this was the gods’ way of saying they’re sick of us running up close and talking, well, maybe they’ll leave Caed Nua alone for a while.”

“Edér, this is going to change her options.”

“Particularly her crossbowing? I know. You still have all your spells.”

“Ah. Yes. Being indispensable.” Aloth turned away.

“I’ll bring you two some water. Try to relax. I mean, he coulda taken both.”

“Oh,” said Aloth. “Yes, I suppose.” Edér reflected that the thought of Vailond helpless was not going to improve anyone’s day. He moved on, doing what he could. For both of them.

*

Vailond didn’t stir that day. Malda and Consideration stayed quiet at vigil by her bed. On the following morning she crept out from beside Aloth, changed her poultice herself under the kerchief, and brought Malda and her crossbow down to a target range in the lower city. Even at this hour there were hunters shooting, comparing notes, easing the restlessness of their animal companions. Even in the dizzy space where she couldn’t see, she could smell the fellow rangers’ creatures.

Vailond picked a spot. She wound her crossbow. She aimed at the clay target. She fired.

A stone in the wall behind the target clinked and fell in two.

Vailond swallowed a lump. What good was she to anyone if she couldn’t shoot? Knowing when to resort to physical violence had been her hallmark—that, and efficiently deploying physical violence—ever since she’d become a leader. Now? Worthless. It would endanger her friends for her to try judging dynamic situations.

An arrow whispered past her and hit the bull’s eye. Why couldn’t showoffs just leave her alone? She whirled, snarling.

And then her jaw went slack.

“Is that all the welcome I get?” The voice was growly and theatrical, the speaker orange-furred and more so.

“What the… _Hiravias_?”

The orlan beamed. “My clan was in the neighborhood, and, well, word of a Watcher gets around.” He studied her face, her torn-sheet eyepatch. “Fuck. I know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Vail, you didn’t have to flatter me that much!”

“I wouldn’t do it twice. This is Malda, she's Tyrhos's pup."

"And good-looking, too. Do you pick your wolves on aesthetic grounds?"

"Do you want to come to Caed Nua with us? We’re rebuilding it. There’s more adra.”

“And you almost had me sold on it, my friend. Have a seat. Let’s catch up. You’re going to need someone who can shoot.”

“Last I checked, you were down one eye, too.”

“Yeah, but I’m less picky about what I hit.”

“And that’s good?”

“Well, I feel better about it.”

She felt the catch in her core. The scene fell away. Vailond was in the In-Between.

Terror and rage clutched her innards. Even in this place, half her field of vision was gone. Who else was coming? When would one of them make it a fair fight? It didn't help that she would never arrange one.

Tall, green, and amber-eyed. Galawain had been the object of Vailond’s devotion all her life, up until she learned that the gods were just Engwithan constructs. She still liked what he stood for: the wild, the hunt, and the kill. He appreciated, but did not guarantee, fair fights.

“You survived Skaen,” said Galawain.

“He wanted me to survive,” she said. It was bitter because it was true.

“Yet you are standing and angry through your pain. Your blood does you credit. I have always been proud of your spirit.”

“We stopped sharing the world. Don’t you remember? It’s kith time. What do you want, Galawain?”

“Only to let you know that we have had words with Rymrgand. He will not continue to interfere with the Pillar. No further Awakenings.”

“Fine. What about Skaen? And Wael?”

“The gods are not meant to interfere with your effort to restore kith to a cycle of death and rebirth. Beyond one intervention, they will not harm. And I, beyond the current summoning, I will not help.”

“Could you restore my eye?”

“No. I cannot.”

“Fine. Are we done here?”

“Give my regards to Hiravias. We will meet in the hunt someday.”

“Is that short for ‘when he dies’?”

“You ask too many questions. This is your hunt, not mine.” Galawain faded away. Vailond felt it, the tug back to their world. The pain throbbed in her head.

“Galawain,” she said. “He sends his regards.”

Hiravias rubbed his neck. “I thought getting your Watcher thing under control would help with the spacing out.”

“Oh, the gods figured out they can summon me themselves.”

“That happen you often?”

“More’n I like to think about.”

They rode home. What more was there to say? Hiravias transformed to a staelgar and kept pace with the party. He did have to spend ten seconds establishing the balance of power with Malda and Consideration, who seemed immune to concerns about his size and strength. Otherwise, people rode in eerie silence, all the way home.

*

“What’s over there?” said Bearn.

Ydwin paused her pacing. It wasn’t like she made a secret of referring to the storeroom often.

“Luminous adra,” said Ydwin. “Harvested from the Pillar here. It stays there before we process it.”

“But you’re in a few times a day. Is all that processing?”

“I require soul energy. It is what I…eat, since I uncoupled my soul from my body. Luminous adra provides that.”

“What if you didn't have any?”

Ydwin raised her eyebrows and ran her red-eyed gaze down his body. She didn't have to touch the poniard at her side. “I would not starve,” she said coolly.

Unwilling to pursue this further, Bearn got back to work. He wove copper rings into silken scarves. It was an experiment in creating soul tunnels and it was definitely missing something.

He looked around, and went under.

Ydwin was patrolling the animancers’ floor, watching progress, sometimes writing something on paper on a little portable board. Bearn stood and she went to check on him. Close now. Bearn could feel the unclean aspect of his prior life sizing her up, planning the strangling. He tried not to flex his hands. His other aspect flexed them for him.

Tyrhos, in the corner, got up and growled.

Ydwin’s eye cut was almost too fast to see. Almost. Oh, she had heard the wolf.

Bearn’s aspect’s response was simple. Get her before the old wolf could get up.

His arms reached out and grabbed Ydwin’s shoulder and hair. His body pulled her in and got a firm headlock. His hand in her hair pulled her head up. “You have such a lovely place here.”

Bearn felt Tyrhos from the side. The wolf knocked him over and free of Ydwin. Ydwin sprang to her feet while Tyrhos opened his huge jaws and clamped, nonfatally, onto Bearn’s right hand.

“Wyglet, the Knockdown.” The animancer rushed toward Ydwin with the little glass case with the adra mechanisms. Ydwin ran her fingertips over it and pointed it at Bearn.

The other went away. His previous life receded. He was just Bearn, with more than he wanted to know about his past life.

“So there we have him,” said Ydwin. “Bearn, do you know his name?”

Why would he even ask? “I’m not his friend!” He struggled to his feet.

“Well, no one else is either. So what does this teach us? Does he surface when you’re working too hard? Or when you’re bored?”

“I don’t know. I’m feeling a little dizzy,” he said. 'Dizzy' didn't cover it. He felt unclean. “Can I go lie down?”

Ydwin nodded. “Bring Tyrhos. Bring him everywhere.”

Tyrhos padded close and gently headbutted his side. Well, at least someone didn’t hold grudges. if Tyrhos could force or at least notice what Bearn couldn't stop...well, then they had better be friends.

*

Ydwin had entered Vailond’s bedroom carrying her little note board and perched on the armchair. She treated Vailond’s mangled face exactly the same way she’d treated Vailond’s regular face. “Vailond, we—” Ydwin cleared her throat. “Is this a bad time?”

Vailond took the pack of Aloth-cooled herbs away from her eye patch. “No. Go ahead.”

“The adra pillar actually gives us design options. It can capture and intercept…a vast number of souls. Maybe even some that are stuck discorporated in this world. It could act as a conduit into the In-Between. Free movement from the top.”

“Let them have a choice.”

“What?”

“Let returning souls have a choice about the details of their birth. What country, what kind of family.”

Ydwin touched a quill to her lips and frowned. “You can’t possibly fulfill all of them.”

“So let the souls fight it out. Don’t make it random and don’t make it our fault. Let them choose.”

“I find your proposal intriguing. We’ll look into it.”

“And now,” Tekēhu said behind Vailond, “I believe it’s time for lunch.”

“Right,” said Vailond. “Bye.”

“The food is in the great hall,” said Tekēhu. “Ekera, everyone there will be happy to see you.”

“ _Don’t_.”

He offered his arm. “Don’t leave me without an escort in a strange land.”

Vailond drew up her knees to her chin. “I’ll catch up later.”

“Vailond.” It was Aloth’s voice. He came in carrying a covered basket on his arm. “Hungry?”

Tekēhu only laughed. “So much for my efforts to tease her forth. You are lucky to have one another. Come, Ydwin, not everyone has a picnic lunch packed.”

Aloth had put his basket on the foot of the bed. Now he picked it up. “Do you want me on the side you see? Or on the side you want me to watch for you?”

“Who the hell asks that?”

“I hate guessing.”

“My head hurts.”

“Let me re-freeze your compress.”

She handled the cloth bundle over. “I don’t…want to talk, Aloth.”

“Then I’ll take the side I can watch for you.” He put the basket back at her feet and settled on the bed at her right, barely at the edge of her one-eyed vision. “Here.” He slowly offered her a cold haunch.

She wanted to fight, or prove something. But she was hungry. And he would tell her if anything came up.

Aloth ate beside her and left for some errand. The ongoing pain of having him in her blind spot lessened, but she was lonely.

Vailond sat up. She took a little rubber ball she had found at Crookspur, what felt like a lifetime ago. She threw it at the floor. It bounced off floor, wall, wall, and she reached out to catch it, and completely missed. She waited for it to wear itself out, then crawled over, grasped it, and started again.

It knocked the door. Aloth opened, carrying his basket. “What’s this? How is your eye?”

“Gone,” she snapped. “I’ve had enough babying for one day.”

“And enough plain caretaking?”

“Please, Aloth. You’ve been really nice, but I…I just don’t.”

“I know you’re in a great deal of pain.”

“I don’t want to talk about this.”

“Is there any other topic you want to talk about right now?”

“Gods. I hate them. I’m going to rebuild a world where they can’t exist.”

“Militant, but understandable.”

“Shut up!” He was so reasonable. “You don’t know anything about what gods give and take! Your biggest problem is that your own soul sometimes has bad table manners! You know _nothing_ of loss!”

Aloth had gone dead white. “Are you proposing to teach me?” he said quietly.

“No. I don’t know. Go away. Please.”

“I’d like to stay the night with you.”

The person she loved most, needed most, wanted most, the one she couldn’t stand to have around in her weakness. “And I don’t want you to! Go away!”

He took the candle with him and left. Vailond crawled to bed. Crying burned one eye and left the other wet.

*

Vailond shivered when she found herself in the fireplace room. The walls were all ornate gilt frames around blurry faces. The fireplace stretched the width of the room. Behind her was the scent of a pine forest. Trask was slowly pushing himself off of the skeleton armchair, seeming to have to force every point of contact free.

He turned to her. “Vailond. You’re alive.”

“Hell of a greeting,” she said. “Did you know? Did you?”

“No. I didn’t realize in time.”

“Tell me who did this to me.”

He set his jaw. “Skaen. I know his fingerprints.”

“Really? And how do you do anything when you’re stuck in that chair every minute I don’t talk to you?”

He pushed his black hair back behind his head. His bare arms flexed to an alarming degree. In a straight brawl, here without wolves, she would lose. Good to know. “When I manifest this place, I am initially bound by its first image.” He looked around. He looked at her face. She brought her hand up and tilted her head to hide her bandage.

“A moment.” He waved. Vailond felt something itchy in her missing eye. No. Not empty. Something was growing, filling in.

An eye. He was giving her back her eye.

“Only an illusion, I fear.” He brushed her bandage aside. She could see. She could see the fire, could see his green eyes, could see his full lips. “Here, what the other gods have taken away, I can give back.”

She tried to stop shaking. “I…can see. I’m not…ugly. Really? I’m not?”

“Never, Aila. Do you wish to see a mirror?” She nodded violently. He reached behind his back and returned with an ivory hand mirror.

Vailond looked at her face. It seemed less tanned, less well-fed, than she usually thought of herself. But her eyes were there, two of them, cornflower blue, matching, peering from every angle as she moved her face around while keeping her gaze riveted on the bright reflection.

Her vision blurred. With tears, this time.

“Can I stay here?” she whispered.

“No.” His face didn’t seem to show much expression apart from concern. “Only a god can stay here without burning.”

“Let me stay,” she said. The heat was rolling from, not the fireplace, but the man. She backed away. “Just a few minutes more.”

“Rest is all I wish for,” he said. “Even if yours must end when you wake.”

“What do you mean, all you wish for?” Questions of this handsome human who knew too much crowded to the fore. “Are you an aspect of Berath? Or Rymrgand?” Of course it came back to the annoying ones.

“Ah. No. I am beneath and prior to the eleven you know. I am the one they bound.”

“Why?”

“What are the jealousies of the gods to you? With Eothas’ upheaval I had my chance to surface. And I met you. In time, I will tell you everything. You seek the good of all souls. You don’t know how long I have waited to find someone of such pure motive.”

“I just want to be left alone.”

“You have built a castle on the opposite premise. You look fierce when you’re wondering something.”

“What?”

“Like that. Listen, where are you now?”

“At Caed Nua.”

“You don’t have to travel on…do you?”

“Ah. I do. We’re going to Clîaban Rilag.”

“An Engwithan machine lies there.”

“I know. I deactivated it…violently, a few years ago.”

“But to rebuild a river of souls it would be invaluable.”

“Yes. I have to figure out how to undo what I did.”

“I can tell you where to find the spare pieces for the controls and main mechanism. They may yet be replaceable.”

Vailond stared.

“What’s wrong?”

“You know it’s there, and how to fix it?”

“Assuming nobody has disturbed it since, but…the Engwithans built to last.”

“And you would help?”

“Aila. These were the hands of my people.” He made the description short but clear. Then, “I cannot keep you here long. You have your quest, and I, I still struggle with energy. But I wanted you to have tonight. I could not stop Skaen’s cruelty…there is an epitaph for the ages. I could not stop him. But while you are here, you may feel whole.”

“Will I see you again?”

“With both eyes, when I work up the strength. Until we meet again.” Like she could rely on that.

“Vailond. Vailond!” She opened her eye. Aloth leaned over her, his face pale in the darkness. “You were laughing. Are you all right?”

“Mph. Yes.”

“Dare I ask what you were dreaming? It wasn’t a Watcher flood again, was it?”

Vailond touched her burning cheeks and shook her head. Bribed feelings. Convenient, that. Feelings she couldn’t share. So she couldn’t bring it up at all. “I don’t remember. I just had a feeling.” Someone too good to be true. A trick? A lie? Just one more moment with her eye? “Aloth?” He who hadn’t had an ulterior motive since the day he’d sworn himself to her. “I love you. You know that, right?”

“After everything? I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.” He hesitated. “May I stay?”

The night was loud with insects and sticky with the lingering heat. She didn’t want to be alone. “Yes,” she whispered. “Please.”

*

Vailond, Edér, Aloth, Hiravias, Kana, Tekēhu, Mother. They rode together, past Dyrford, into Glanfathan territory. Clîaban Rilag looked peaceful then. The Saints’ War had raced through here toward its appointment with the Godhammer and Eothas’ first fall. The War had raced, and Vailond fell behind Edér.

“This way,” said Edér. Vailond let him lead.

The terrain around Clîaban Rilag was rough and broken, dotted by small grassy meadows. A stream ran through it, black and restless. Edér navigated slowly, by fits and starts, eyeing the sparse trees, the rocky ground.

“Here,” he finally said. He knelt by the stream and touched the ground with his fingertips. “Here’s where he fell.”

“Ekera, this water is stained with blood,” murmured Tekēhu.

Edér looked up. “That’s my brother. In the Saint’s War.”

“Ah. I am sorry to hear of it.”

“Not as sorry as I am to say it.” He fell silent and bowed his head. Vailond felt antsy, but he needed time, and given how few of his needs she could meet, she felt it important to give him this one.

Edér looked up. “All right. That’s all. So, uh, Engwithan machine?”

“That stupid cave maze first,” said Vailond.

“Right, the one that almost killed you and Aloth!” Hiravias said brightly. “I was sure you two were pulped when you fell.”

“It felt like we were,” said Aloth. “Here.” He stopped at a furious formation of black stone that stood over a little dell. “That crack, there. We’d best leave the horses here. Mother?”

“No one will see them while I stand guard,” she said calmly. “I assume you remember the motions for the machine, Vailond.”

“Oh, yes. I do.” Vailond didn’t need a cipher to deal with the Engwithan machines. She had earned her knowledge of them herself. “Aloth?”

He raised a little bronze lamp casting pale orange light. “After you.”

Vailond stepped in. It was a spiky little dance down onto the walkway that would take them underground to the ancient Engwithan machine. Another machine that must be commanded to bear souls toward the Pillar.

Another stupid Watcher thing a Watcher had to do.

“I was so scared when you fell,” blurted Vailond, and immediately kicked herself for it. Admitting fear? Her? Just because it was true…

“Once we were clear of the water I could dry our clothes,” said Aloth. “And provide light. It seemed like we would be comfortable when we died.”

“I knew…something, then. And I thought that it was just that I wanted you to share my hunts.”

“As opposed to other things,” stage-whispered Hiravias.

“I wanted to live. But not alone.”

Kana chuckled. “Exactly how long were you two involved before either one admitted you were involved?”

Vailond snorted. “Me? Admit? Never.”

Aloth spoke with a smile. “That first day when Iselmyr got me in trouble and a mysterious, rugged-looking elf talked the trouble down again.”

“Iselmyr ever get jealous?” Edér said seriously.

“Iselmyr _is_ me,” Aloth said primly. “It isn’t the same.”

“Sh, we’re getting close. Aloth, keep the light up.” They rounded a corner and there it was: round, grayish purple, twice a human’s height, and reeking of malice.

Well, that last part might be made up.

“Hello,” she said pointlessly. “I know I said nobody’s ever going to abuse you again, but I came up with some really novel abuse.” She walked to one edge where the machine receded into stone. She felt around for a release and pulled out a small stone panel.

“Huh,” she said.

“How did you know that was there?” said Edér. “Does it have the parts we need?”

“I just had a feeling,” Vailond said nervously. She didn’t want to give Trask up yet. They wouldn’t understand. Could she talk about her eye’s restoration without melting? “You know I’m supposed to remember these things.” She hurried to the control panel and fumbled the stone. She winced when it hit, but…well, stone. She cleared away the rubble of the panel that she had smashed when turning this machine on six years ago. She slotted the spare panel in place and started touching the controls for directing the flow of souls. Capture, fling toward Caed Nua.

Vailond wondered whether Ydwin would immediately notice or understand what was happening. How many souls were floating around here?

“Vail?” said Aloth. “Leakage.”

That was all the warning she had before the shade appeared in front of her nose. Vailond yelped and clumsily pulled out her dagger. Aloth was swinging a scepter that glowed at the end, and held it to the shade’s vague shape. The thing screeched. Vailond scrambled back.

She saw the look in his eyes when the shade fell. And, like that, she remembered that he loved her. He was no god and no lord, but he was the man who would fight to his dying breath, and how many people got that in a lifetime?

“Vail?” He lowered the weapon. “Talk to me.”

She shook herself. “I’m fine.” She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Irrelevantly she wondered how humans kept hair behind their ears if they didn’t have the ear-points.

Stupid, panicky thoughts. “We’re done here,” she said. She took Aloth’s hand. He covered her bad side.

The headache never really went away. Her party rode southward, ready to get out of Glanfathan territory and go home. Late at night they made camp. Vailond sat stretched out under the stars, a little apart from the others.

Aloth, near her, pushed up onto one elbow. “What troubles you?”

A strange man, a fiery room, but she couldn’t confess that. “Is that a trick question?”

“I’m sorry. I mean, why can’t you sleep?”

She hated every possible answer to that, but she cut out the sarcastic ones. “It hurts,” she said.

“Actively?”

“Very.”

He sighed. “I had hoped that it would ease with time. That’s scarcely Skaen’s modus operandi, but I had hoped your healing could continue.”

“Well, it’s not. I’m never getting this back, Aloth.”

“I know, Vail. I’m sorry. I have studied the arcane, to a very high degree, and…it has not helped me help you. I know little about the healing arts.”

“Where’s Durance when you need him?” she said. She couldn’t even laugh at it. “Or Xoti.”

“Our priest friends tend to have intense senses of direction. Without reference to the needs of those around them.”

“Xoti cares. She can’t finish a sentence without Gaun, but she does care. Durance, though…he had an agenda.”

“And a target in that agenda. I used to hate the way he looked at you. Possessive, like you were there for his use.”

“You cared how Durance looked at me?”

“I…obviously, he…I mean,” and his flusterment could cure a mere headache, “he was disrespectful, regardless of how I felt about you.”

“You cared how Durance looked at me. Aloth, that’s the nicest thing anybody’s said about me all week.”

“I didn’t think you were mine to dispose of.”

“No, you probably thought I was a wild animal running around indoors smashing everything.”

Aloth smiled wryly. “An intriguing and perhaps not wholly inaccurate description.”

“You made me so happy. I mean, awkward, guilty on general principle, but…when I think of those days, and how much everything hurt, and how angry I was at the gods, and how terrible everything seemed to be…I think of you and it’s like a glowing spot on the calendar.”

A pause. The night wind sent Vailond burrowing harder into her bedroll.

“I love you,” Aloth said quietly.

She freed a hand enough to reach over and take his. She squeezed. He was real, and not a burning unknown trapper. Because she knew damn well Trask was a trapper. Any hunter would envy a lure as powerful as healing. She would take him for all he was worth, for now. And then return to the real world.

“I don’t care if you can’t fix this,” she whispered. “You’re enough for me.”

“You’ve…never said that before.” He shifted over and lightly touched her cheek. “Ever.”

“Maybe some things don’t go without saying anymore. Let’s sleep.”

It didn’t even matter that his finger was too close to her bandage. Nothing mattered, except the quiet insect noise and the gentle shining of the moon over the light drape of peace.


	6. Tribute to Caed Nua

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Friends just keep turning up. Durance reaches a decision. Improvements are made to the Pillar. This chapter is about the development surrounding the Pillar, by machine and nature.

_Abydon crafts, the hammer his hand,_

_Work, dedication all over the land_

  * Dyrwoodan children’s song



“That. That was good.”

Ydwin was wearing the same embroidered coat she had seen Vailond off in, which meant nothing except that Ydwin had not had the spare time to sew herself something finer. Well, good. Busy could be good.

Ydwin stood by Vailond’s freshly-arrived horse as if the briefing couldn't wait for daylight. “Whatever you did out there? Do it more. You activated an Engwithan machine?”

“Yes, one that I’d shut down during the Hollowborn thing. It’s back up, it’s directing nearby dead souls toward Caed Nua.”

“Excellent. You may wish to come see, I put a diagram in the workshop of the entire soul cycle we’re targeting. Pillar, In-Between, intake mechanism, live out their lives, Pillar.”

“Intake mechanism?” said Aloth.

“We’re working on it,” said Ydwin. “Until that’s working, the Pillar will just keep sending souls it receives into the In-Between. Into a specific place in the In-Between. They’re safe there, they’re just not returning to new lives until we get the intake going.”

“That seems significant,” said Vailond.

“I have people on it,” said Ydwin. “There are some matters of stability and pacing, but all that is a matter of application.”

“Which is what you do.”

Ydwin smiled slightly. “Yes, in fact.”

*

Sunset. Aloth let a groom see to the horses. There was only one being he was concerned with now.

And she walked stiffly, her head tilted to one side, her steps sometimes half-stumbling. He ached to be at her side while she leaned, but Vailond Dugauer did not lean. Aloth walked at her side anyway. She clomped up the stairs of the Brighthollow Inn and opened the door to her room.

“Vail?” She passed in without looking at him and flopped down on the featherbed, face pressed to the soft sheets.

Aloth closed the door and opened the window. The moonlight painted her in white brushstrokes. He could barely hear her breath. He came alongside and sat on the edge of the bed, twisting to lay a hand on Vailond’s shoulder.

She snapped to a fetal curl. “Thank you,” she mumbled.

“You’re welcome. For what?”

“Everything.”

She turned her face in profile. “I’m not…” Her face twisted up. “I’m not exactly what I was. Am I. I never cared about being beautiful until I met you.”

“My priorities could never weigh one scar over all the rest of you.”

“Are you sure you like me?”

“Should I enumerate the ways?”

Finally, a smile. “Maybe you should. I like your strategies.”

“Your tactics.”

“Your courage.”

“Your gall.”

“Your marvelous arms.”

“Your inexhaustible body.”

“Your biting yet alarmingly accurate summary of what a bad plan we have.”

“Your bad plans.”

“Sorry, were we praising each other at some point?”

“We’re only listing what we love.”

Ah.” Her fists bunched up. “Your patience.”

He leaned down. “Your heart. In all its complexity. I’ve watched you in love, Vail, and I’ve watched you in loneliness. And perhaps I bumped into both of those myself. But we’ve made it here.”

“Ah,” she said softly. “Yes. We have.” She started kicking at nothing in particular. Aloth took the time to remove his boots before she finally curled up and shucked her own boots off.

“Here,” she said, pointing at the pillows. He obligingly lay down, head comfortably cushioned, body straight and relaxed.

And she, like a wild animal, settled alongside, and rested her cheek on his chest.

He reached up without meaning to and stroked a lock of her cheekbone-length hair. “Did you get what you wanted from Clîaban Rilag?”

“One repair. One lover. Remember when we fell and we thought we were going to die?”

“I was confident that we would escape.”

“Liar.”

“Oh, you were worried. You were going to say something, just when Hiravias spotted us. What was it?”

She laughed softly. “I don’t remember.”

“Are you sure?”

“I thought…we should stay close for warmth.”

“I didn’t dare suggest it.”

“Oh, no, I would’ve shot you right down.”

“But with your undershirt off to serve as bandage, and your tunic laced just so over the rest of you…”

“Did that matter to you?”

“I’m not blind.” Wrong word. He sucked in a breath.

Vailond nuzzled his chest. “It’s okay. It’s okay. Hm. Maybe a _little_ close for warmth.”

He settled his hands on her back. “A tiny bit. It is just us here.”

“Tonight,” she sighed, and yawned. “We have tonight. —You were really checking out my breasts?”

“In my defense,” Aloth said nervously, “I was half mad with despair.”

“I could give you a lot more than that without despairing.”

“I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay now. Goodnight.”

*

Hiravias was not great on horses. For their travels he had loped along in staelgar form, saving up bon mots for when the party rested and he had the chance to return to orlan form and talk.

They had been back at Caed Nua for no more than a day when Hiravias tracked Vailond down. She avoided the range these days. He found her in the keep’s ground-floor library, painstakingly filling in a map of Engwithan ruins in the Dyrwood and Eir Glanfath.

“Vail?” he said. “I made something for you. From one of my kills on the way to Caed Nua.”

“Not in a mood for…” Rare steak just wasn’t it. “What is it?”

Hiravias drew something out of his pack. It was a triangle of leather with four leather strings hanging from it. On the triangle was inscribed an image of two fangs, clasping where the eye would be.

Because it was an eyepatch. Vailond looked at Hiravias, who wore his Galawain-icon patch over his own missing eye. She looked at the eyepatch again. “This is beautiful,” she said. “This is exactly what I wanted.”

“Yes, well, don’t expect I’ll win that lottery again, but I thought you should have it. For all the kills you’ll earn in the future. Trust me, you will.”

“You know you’re the only person who understands some things.”

“The appeal of raw meat is an acquired taste for most.”

“No, I mean…you get the snares and the outdoors and all of it. You could turn into a wolf right now if you wanted to.”

He looked around for where Malda was napping. “We are rapidly reaching wolf capacity.”

“What I’m saying is…I don’t know. Thank you.”

“Want a hand getting that on?”

Out in the wilderness, any physical help was simply a matter of pack responsibility. “Please.” She leaned over, and he wrapped the strings around her head and tied them with a knot that Vailond knew would hold. Any hunter would do no less.

“You look ready to savage your next opponent with your teeth,” Hiravias said brightly. “I wouldn’t recommend it with yours, but we can’t all be shapeshifters.”

“Ekera,” came Tekēhu’s voice, “It would be a more exciting world if we could. Your eyepatch looks thematically appropriate, I say. What do the fangs represent?

Vailond looked at Hiravias. Hiravias looked at Vailond. “Biting stuff,” they said.

*

“There you are,” Durance said impatiently. He did not stir from his heap of rags on the prison floor, deep beneath Rauatai's Brass Citadel. “It’s a wonder I still remember what I wanted to say.”

“I thought you had your rants memorized,” Maia said levelly.

“I did not bless the makers of the Godhammer,” said Durance.

Months of intelligence briefings wavered. “Oh? That’s new.”

“I built it,” said Durance.

“Interesting.” And obviously an exaggeration, but he suddenly wanted her approval, and that was valuable. “Want to do that again? I mean, the gods haven’t done you any favors.”

“I could build a small example. Whatever god has denied you, bring them close enough and you’ll grant them a good stroke.”

“You’ll have materials and assistants. You will design the trigger mechanism first, and we will hold onto it. Understand?”

Durance leered. “Hold tight. You don’t want my tool…bursting…early. Tell me, how much black powder can you make available?”

Maia arched an eyebrow. “You’ve come to the right government.”

*

Home in Caed Nua. The pain in Vailond’s head was forgettable for minutes and hours. Hiravias brought her on early-morning excursions to good hunting spots in the grove behind the keep. You didn’t need two eyes to tie a snare. Every captured squirrel was a little reminder that she was still Vailond. Kana sang after supper. Edér did nothing visible, but then, Effort and Consideration were there to play with Malda and keep her in or out of sight depending on Vailond’s fatigue. Tekēhu had brought his pillar-fountain vision into being and had moved to spending hours building something of shimmering metal opposite the Steward. And Aloth…Aloth studied, as if he had two people to protect now.

Vailond was honing her new best friend, her dagger, out in view of the pillar fountain where the water ran down the sides and glistened down to the ground and to the edge of the Deep Well, the hole the pillar stood in. She could gladly dance in that water if only she dared to get close to the edge. Waterfalls always made her feel better, a fact that had tickled Tekēhu no end.

A draft horse appeared under the western gate. Vailond stood and headed over. It was pulling a battered-looking wagon with a faded sunshade. As Vailond watched, six people piled out.

Vailond kept her dagger out. “What do you want?” she said.

They gathered behind a worn-looking orlan woman. “Please, we have come to see the World Pillar.”

“The what?” said Vailond.

“And you, the Last Watcher!”

“The who?” said Vailond.

“We must pay respects.”

“It’ll kill you.”

“If it is the will of the gods.”

“Fuck the gods! Have you been paying attention to _anything_ in the last six years?”

The woman tilted her head and eyed Vailond curiously. “No?”

Vailond threw up her hands. “Fine, look at it. But don’t get too close.”

She stomped directly for the Steward.

The statue, being solid stone, gave no expression except the good-natured glow Vailond the Watcher could see. “My lady,” said the Steward, “have you considered clearing some of the rear forest to accommodate additional living quarters?”

“No. Not happening.”

“It’s just that with the pilgrims there are more guests than ever.”

“The guests can camp outside the walls. The west field’s going begging. If you want we can build an inn there. A small one.”

“Outside the protection of the walls.”

“Exactly. The trees inside stay.” In what world would that not be her priority? Malda loved romping through that forest, and so did Vailond.

Kana showed up on her good side. “Vail,” he said. “There’s something I would learn from the pilgrims.”

“Hospitality? Or shakedowns?”

“You wound me. You affirmed the importance of my people’s history. Here, history is being built. And it is being built by my friends. I am humbled, but I am no animancer. What can I do but collect stories from the people who have come to this moment?”

Right. Some people found that interesting. “Poet. Fine.”

“You are a concrete thinker, Vailond. Perhaps it is your fate to act while it is my fate to document.”

“Do you think there will be more…pilgrims?”

“Without a doubt.” He smiled. “I can hold their attention.”

“You’re an amazing aumaua being.”

“My pleasure.”

*

It was a rainy day among the Kangadi Islands, and most of the crew of the _Soheina_ was belowdecks, integrating the results of the last raid with the supplies of the ship. The Captain ran a moderate crew, but if someone picked trouble with the _Soheina_ they would find their trouble returned with interest.

The pirate captain was kneeling belowdecks on the captured vessel. “Please, it’s all we have!”

“This is garbage, Cap.” Serafen had stopped feeling awkward about the nickname. “Captain” shortened was “Cap,” unless you wanted to go around calling people “Tain.” And he liked Captain Agarath. The former slave—everyone on the _Soheina_ was a former slave—was even-tempered and fair. “Copper’s cheap, and you can’t possibly make copper alloy that much more expensive. What is it in there? Gold? Luminous adra? Bullshit?”

“A skeptic, I understand,” said the dry-lipped pirate. “Allow me to assure you, this copper is invaluable for animantic pursuits.”

“So sell it to animancers.”

“Peace, Serafen. He is bargaining for his life here.”

“Right. Almost forgot that part. But Cap, there’s got to be something worth more than this on that ship.”

But that was what they got, and the Príncipi trader limped away. Serafen prodded at the giant spools of copper cable. There was a plate attached to it with a stamped symbol. “Vailian Republics. We can’t sell this anywhere in the Deadfire.”

Agarath looked up. “Bastard.”

“I may have a buyer in the Dyrwood,” Serafen said slowly. “I know a lass. A…woman. You met her once. We all did, when she set you free. She be trying the biggest animantic stunt in history, barring mayhap when the gods were made. If this really helps bind souls, she’ll have a use for it.”

“Dyrwood, eh? A course for Defiance Bay?”

“Oh, blow me down and sideways, there be absolutely no chance I’ll be the one delivering it. That kind of lass, if you know.”

“Ah. We can transfer this to another ship.”

“Much appreciated.”

*

Vailond faced the fire. She didn’t even have to ask; she felt the itching in her missing eye, felt the swelling development, felt her new eye exactly where it ought to be.

“I want this every night,” she said, and turned.

Trask stood between her and the chair. He handed her the ivory-handled mirror and returned to cross his arms over his chest. He looked at Vailond’s face. “Should I not leave some air of mystery?”

She looked in the mirror. Matched, blue, full range of motion and vision. “This is the reality I want.”

“One room? No. We will see the gods removed—including the one who did this to you—and when that is done, I will do everything in my power. Before I retire.”

“Retire? Can gods do that?”

He nodded. “I have existed a long time, Aila. I am tired. I cannot lose myself so long as my brethren are jerking mortals around. When they rest, so can I. So this? Your replacement for their tyranny? Is an intense interest of mine.”

Something stirred in the back of her mind but she wanted to ignore it. “You know I think I would go crazy if I didn’t have this to look forward to. This is possible because of you.”

“I am an impotent construct who can barely manage to manifest in dreams. I cannot face my own brothers and sisters on my own.”

“I’d love to throw you in their faces.”

Something sparked in his eyes. “Not yet.”

“You don’t talk like the other gods. You’re not as…pompous.”

“I was made to be closer to kith. To have a deeper part of their nature, to understand them better than my brethren did.”

“So you could be the gods’ pet?”

“So I could be their king.” He looked away. “Woedica fixed that quickly. Abydon bound me to this particular shell. For a long time. I wouldn’t object, I have learned to escape from time to time. Or issue invitations.”

“Does that mean you can spy on the other gods?”

“To track them all would have to come at the expense of seeing you. And…I wish to go on seeing you.”

“Why?”

He crossed his arms over his chest and eyed her. “This form cannot smile. It never could. I fear that muddles the communication.”

“Wait, really? Why don’t you just use your hands? Touch the corner of your mouth and up or something.”

“Only you would know.”

She grinned. “I know.”

His forehead wrinkled up but he raised a knuckle to the corner of his mouth and twisted up. “I shouldn’t be exploring language with you. My sole priority is attaining rest. I will not be denied, Aila, not even by you.”

“Why do you call me ‘Aila’?”

He shrugged, gesturing another smile. “It is Vailond without beginning and without end. And I like the sound of it. Does it bother you?”

“No. It’s just very…just you and me.”

“Is it selfish to like that?”

It wasn’t infidelity. He was a construct and she knew not to trust him. She barely touched him. She winked one and then the other eye. She smiled at Trask. “We’re going to Defiance Bay soon.”

“One of the unfortunate cities built around a machine. I have no further advice.”

“That’s all right,” she said. That was fine.

He came closer. “It took twelve of my kind to make that Wheel. And you’re trying to build with one of you. There will come a time when I will be able to help you…I don’t know for how long.” He reached for her hand. His touch was like a stone left in the sun. “I don’t know how much I’ll be able to do for you.” He came closer. He set his free hand on her waist. “This oubliette is separated from the world and from all watchers.” He stared into her eye. Then her other eye, and she saw him entirely. She was complete, and she was in his arms.

Was it infidelity? Exactly what satisfaction did a moving half-statue expect to get, or was this about buying her love by giving things to her?

He should have stopped with the eye.

“Don’t,” she said. Was rejecting a god a good idea?

“Ah.” He let her go and breathed out, hard. The muscle in his cheek twitched. “I never meant to experience jealousy. What kind of divinity does?”

Her heart sank. She could deal with him punishing her. Punishing Aloth, though… “Leave him alone,” she growled.

“As opposed to what? I have no need to harm him, least of all if doing so harms you.”

“Oh. That’s very…nice.” She studied him now, the faint texture of stone over his stiff features. “Does all that mean we don’t talk again?”

“I wish to talk.” He spun away, bringing up his smooth hands to push his black mane back. “I…wish. This is what it feels like. The souls that became me, their memories are…wrapped, in a dozen layers of gauze. I can make out only the shapes. In two thousand years, no one taught me desire.”

“It’s survivable,” said Vailond. Just ask her and Edér, and look what a wonderful bond had come from that.

“Loyalty. I didn’t learn much of that, either.” Slowly, reluctantly, he turned. His hand came up to signal another smile.

“Trask, I want to be your friend.” Not just because he could give her back her eye. No, there were perfectly legitimate reasons. “It’s nice being here. Talking to you.”

“I have little to offer you. Though I trust my information about the machines—”

“Fuck the machines. You’ve been nice to me. I don’t forget that.”

He did not try to touch her again. What kind of bad guy would just stop like that? Not a credibly dangerous one. When she left, she left to sound sleep.

*

Vailond was experimenting with using some of her snare knots to suspend a mirror over her arm to compensate for the missing eye. It wasn’t going well.

She heard the walk in the corridor and snapped her prototype out of the way. “Yes? What is it?”

It, she was led out to see, was two large wagon loads. Vailond gestured for the hostler to start tending to the eight sturdy horses.

“In the meantime, what the hell is this?” Vailond said to the surly-looking driver of the first wagon.

“Copper alloy,” he mumbled in an impressive, if restrained, bass. “Serafen sends his regards.”

“I’m fine with sending me regards, it’s sending me a ton and a half of copper that’s freaking me out.” Vailond craned to stare at the bright red coils. It was like her hair had gone berserk and grown to climb-out-of-towers length. “I don’t suppose he sent a card?”

“Here, ma’am.”

The card was small, thick, sturdy, neatly written, and wrapped in four layers of envelopes. Only the outer three were water damaged. In a peculiar stabbing script she read,

“Captain,

“I heard animancers might find use of this, and I heard you employ animancers. Good luck. P.S. They give me double grog ration here. Good luck finding a mate the next time you’re down.

“Yours truly.

“S.”

Vailond wiped away a tear she hadn’t noticed coming. She looked up and Edér was there.

“Hey,” he said. “I’m not sure what that’s about, but do you want a puppy?”

And her old lover faded. “You’re the best.”

“All right, Effort. I’m applying you to the problem. Every problem is easier when you've used a little Effort.” Edér scratched the young wolf’s head and sent him at her.

“Let’s get Ydwin," she said calmly. "She’ll want to know about this.”

Ydwin was not in the animancers’ lab, but when Vailond gave up and started back the pale elf was on the stairs. “Looking for me?” she said.

“You weren’t here. Does this mean you do sometimes eat and sleep?” said Vailond.

“Those functions aren’t nearly as necessary these days.” She smiled thinly. “It leaves more time for work.”

“I’m not going to say animancers get scary,” said Edér. “Definitely didn’t hear me saying that.”

Ydwin’s close-lipped smile widened. “Did you have a concern?”

“Kind of a question. Walk with me.”

Ydwin did. “I can’t help but notice that the pillar hasn’t flashed since you went to Teir Evron.”

“No. Rymrgand was doing it to screw with us, and the other gods, supposedly, told him to knock it off.”

“Divine infighting. Hm. Bodes poorly for us.” She gestured toward the moon, remnant of one of Ondra’s old stunts. “Very poorly.”

The daylight was fading, but not quickly; it had been another long summer’s day. They gathered around the first wagon.

Ydwin grunted. Then she reached into the coiled mass and ran her fingertips along a cable. “Interesting,” she murmured. “I’ll need some readings, but if this is the variation of copper I think it is, this is…glorious. Where did you get this?”

“An old friend.”

“Your ‘friends’ never cease to surprise me. Mind if I cut off a length for analysis?”

“I’d like to store it in the basement.”

“Subbasement. Basement’s out of room.”

“Right, that. Let me know if it will help with directing souls.”

“If this is what I think it is? It can do better. You want a choice in reincarnation? This is our best bet.”

*

Vailond was eating. Hiravias was eating. There was an air of pleasant concentration on the pavilion outside the grove.

“Hiravias, do you remember the Burial Isle?”

“I haven’t managed to drink that much of my memory away, so, yes.”

“It was a sacred spot and a garden. A messy garden, a wild garden.”

“Beautiful, if you’re watching for such things. I knew you weren’t completely citified.”

“I want the Deep Well to be like that. Plants. Animals who can live in the darkness but come out for the sun.”

“Deep Well. You mean the hole your shaft’s in? Because, lady, I didn’t bring enough seed for that operation.”

“Oh, you’ve been waiting all month to trot out that line.”

“It’s a really big shaft, Vail.” He leaned in. “I can do something with all the levels you and I cleared, but are you sure this isn’t about my Staelgar skills?”

“I don’t know what kith souls need. Maybe there’ll be something that your soul-rejiggering can do that I don’t know about yet. But mostly I want a green space, and I trust you to do it.”

“You know you talk more than you used to.”

“There’s so much that needs to be done. Hey, impress some pilgrims into helping you haul if you need to.”

“Consider me instructed. Any warnings before I go in?”

“You and I killed most of the weird stuff, and Eothas did a second pass. I think you’ll be fine.”

*

Vailond was really getting comfortable with the horse. And the horse, a nimble mare named Lorloc, was getting slightly comfortable with Malda and Consideration running around her legs. They could really go places, as for instance the errand to Dyrford. The headache wasn’t terrible if she just let her eye rest for a while now and then.

Something hit the blue aster at the side of the road. Vailond hurled herself out of her saddle and scrabbled for a crossbow that wasn’t there anymore. “Aloth,” she yelped.

“Vail,” yelled someone.

“Impossible,” muttered Vailond. She stood and dusted her leather jerkin off. She faced the shooter.

It was a tall, lean aumaua woman with a red and blue bird on her shoulder.

“Maia!” yelled Vailond, somewhat annoyed that this kind of thing still surprised her. “What the fuck!”

The woman stowed her arquebus and strode forward, only to stop just shy of the horses. “Vail,” she said. “I, uh. We…didn’t part on the best of terms.”

A mild way of saying that Vailond had categorically denied Maia all benefits of her work in the Deadfire. The Rauataian Royal Deadfire Company had been left in the dust when Vailond went to deal with the adra Eothas.

“Ishi,” said Vailond. “Sh-sh, Malda. He’s a good boy.”

The young wolf ran around Maia, sniffing. The red and blue raptor fluffed and clicked in return.

“Tyrhos’s litter,” said Vailond. “There’s another one around here somewhere.”

“How is the old warhorse?”

“Resting in luxury at Caed Nua. Are you still…you know?”

“With the Rauatai? Yes. I’m keenly interested in whatever discoveries of luminous adra your people have. Obviously the Company has holdings that could benefit. But we’re all pointed in the same direction: rebuilding a cycle of reincarnation. I won’t forget that that’s the goal.” She looked over. “Little brother. Do horses listen when you sing a marching song?”

Kana came up alongside with a flourish. “After the initial spooking, we’re on tolerable terms.”

Maia smiled. “No wonder you like the job so much. So Vailond. Where are you going? Can I help you?”

“Defiance Bay. After an Engwithan machine. I used to do this professionally.”

“Do they still work after all this time?”

“Shockingly well. Would you like to come with me?”

“Ask you something?”

“Interrogation right away. All right, an answer for your report.”

“Your…” she gestured. “What happened?”

“The gods don’t all like my plan,” said Vailond.

“I thought you chewed gods out all the time.”

“Some of ‘em hold grudges.”

“You pissed off Skaen enough for him to start lopping off parts?”

“I never pretended to be diplomatic.”

Maia twitched a smile. “Why don’t we all walk and talk? I’ll keep up with the horses.”

“Ride with me. I’m tiny.”

“Just got in from Defiance Bay. Guess I shouldn’t’ve shaken the dirt off.”

“There’s more,” said Vailond. “There’s always more."

*

Edér watched as Maia murmured at Lorloc. The horse tossed her head and picked her way over to Kana’s giant gelding.

“I didn’t know you could do that,” muttered Vailond.

“You’re not the only animal whisperer in town,” murmured Maia.

Kana just opened his arms. “Maia! Finally, your career has brought you someplace where you can relax! Have you taken advantage of the amenities at Caed Nua? Have you seen Tekēhu’s mighty waterfall? Is it not all gloriously conducive to relaxation? Ah, I hope you can enjoy it!”

“Kana,” said Maia, nodding. “You still demotivating entire battalions?” She did sound happy.

“Vailond keeps no such forces. I flatter myself that I improve our evening hours. Truly I had feared I would never see another Rauataian here. Have you tried the beefloaf? I find that the secret ingredient to make it back home is sugar. Sugar! How simple! How was your journey here? Did they lade you down with assignments? If you need help carrying anything…”

“Ale?” said Maia.

“A capital idea! We should hurry to Defiance Bay.”

At no point did they walk within physical interaction range. Edér thought of his big brother, thought of their rare separations and their rambunctious reunions.

“You sure you two are related?” he said to Kana.

“My name is more than one syllable yet she speaks it. What more can a little brother ask?”

Edér laughed. “Well, if you’re happy.”

*

Vailond took a few people with her on the road to Defiance Bay. Once inside the rebuilt city they made straight for First Fires and the ducal palace.

Duc Faldreth was a poor successor to Duc Aevar Wolf-Grin, but you dealt with the rulers you had, not the ones you might want to raise as undead to continue serving a useful capacity. Vailond hadn’t dealt much with Aevar, but she did like what she’d seen, and it was her quest that had gotten him killed.

Regardless, the ducal palace stood at the center of the city of Defiance Bay, and Duc Faldreth sat at the center of the ducal palace.

Vailond didn’t make an appointment. She was a little past that.

“Ma’am,” said the woman—Sidly, still. “Do you have—”

“No. He’ll want to talk to me.”

“She’s real personable,” clarified Edér.

Aloth looked intelligently menacing, which was something Vailond loved about him.

“You remember Heritage Hill?” said Vailond. “I stopped that. Come on.” Sidly didn’t stop her.

Vailond had never been admitted to the duc’s office, but she didn’t have any trouble finding the door. She gripped and pulled. Good, somebody thought locks weren’t necessary here. People who thought locks weren’t necessary made Vailond’s life so much easier.

She stepped in and glared at the robed woman. “Be elsewhere,” she said. “I don’t have a lot of time.”

“What is this—! Who are you—! !” bayed Duc Faldreth.

“I fixed Heritage Hill six years ago and there’s something I left undone. I need to do that something. And you need to keep people away from the old Engwithan machine. The undead will come back if it’s mishandled.”

“You. You were there when the animancers killed Duc Aevar!”

“Yes. What part of that is relevant to what I just told you?”

“I can ban animancy now!”

“Ah. I don’t take political killings, but you’d best consider that position very carefully before you adopt that.”

“I will not be threatened—!”

Vailond’s head was starting to pound. “Edér, can you please translate everything I said into ‘polite’?”

“Don’t know if I’m the best man for it, but I’ll try.” Edér smiled innocently and started repeating everything Vailond had said, only personably.

“Are we done yet?” said Vailond.

“The Heritage Hill site is under direct protection of the duc,” said Faldreth.

“Yes, that’s why I’m here. As a Watcher, I require the use of that machine. The alternative is the total collapse of society but I don’t expect you to believe that, so just…trust me. I will do what is necessary. You will guard your part of it. Everybody wins.”

“Get out.”

“I really, really suggest you get a guard on that machine. Starting, oh, two hours from now.” She smiled with all the fang she could manage. “It isn’t safe to touch.”

“Better listen,” said Maia. “It’s bad regardless of whether she is or isn’t kidding.”

Well, whatever the new duc thought of her, he didn’t call for her arrest. She wasn’t sure what combination of Edér’s bright appeal, Aloth’s cool superiority, and Vailond’s missing body parts had done it. Well, that was why she’d brought them. They strode out into the baking sun, mounted up by the Ruas, and made their way toward Heritage Hill.

The gate that had closed off the zone was gone, probably to eke out another few dozen square feet in the old manors around it. Not Vailond’s problem.

“So then I was talking to them and I said—ow!” Did nobody in Defiance Bay react in a normal manner? Vailond stopped to see a pair of teenagers.

The one who had bumped into Vailond gave her a wide-eyed once-over. “By the gods. Vailond?”

Vailond rapidly ran through her memory. “Saeda? Saeda Valtas? You’re looking…much less starved!”

“You look like you’ve been through a war.” She snapped her mouth shut. “I—I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. Sometimes I just—”

“No, it’s okay.” A girl who had been the sole survivor of her family might need to hear that kind of thing. “No, I was just going to check on the big machine.”

Saeda shook her head. “Kids still dare each other to go up there and touch the controls.”

“I’m about to turn it on. For a totally different application. I’ll leave the controls in a state that’ll be hard to change, but you and yours had better be careful, all right?”

Saeda worried her lip, her dark eyes troubled. “Where will you send our souls?”

“Not yours. The ones that are being sent from elsewhere. They’re going where the dead go.”

“Because the Wheel was broken,” Saeda said softly. “I should’ve known you would be there.”

“Saving kith is apparently a viable career path,” said Vailond. “I need to go before the duc decides he didn’t like my pitch. Take care of yourself, Saeda. You have someone watching out for you.”

“That was tender hearted of you,” murmured Aloth.

“Remember how we met her? Dirty and starving in a crypt because it was the only place she could get away from her undead family? Yeah. I laid it on a little.”

“You usually avoid places with this many memories.”

Vailond studied her boots. “Yes. I do.”

But the machine was there, and using the spare parts she got it limping into a spin. “I think that’s as good as we’re getting,” said Vailond. “We should go before the duc remembers his pride.”

*

“Better and better,” said Ydwin. “We’re improving the pillar from the base up. I can demonstrate the soul-guiding that a copper-net adra sample can perform. It isn’t the same as on living adra, of course…”

“But I’m the only one who can tell you exactly how it’s doing.”

Ydwin shrugged. “Yes.”

“Ah, home. All right, show me.”


	7. The Ends of Eora

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guests just keep coming. Durance affirms his decision. The Vailian Wheel on the Waves gets an update. Vailond receives another warning, for what that’s worth. Finally, three people come home to roost. This chapter is about the propagation of information of an intensely personal nature.

Hylea, mistress of egg and of birth,

Her avian court accepts souls for their worth

  * Dyrwoodan children’s song



The Steward kept cheerful track of Caed Nua Keep’s comings and goings. Using her senses throughout the castle she watched visitors as they entered, milled about, presented themselves, dined, and were sent back out to Brighthollow to sleep.

The Steward, who had been at this for a very long time, had identified two Aedyran spies, three Dyrwoodan, one Vailian, and two Rauatai. The wonderful thing was, they usually spoke to one another rather than to the animancers they were trying to ingratiate themselves with. Given how few of the animancers were briefed to the full extent of the Pillar project, it was guaranteed that these people would chase one another around for months trying to find someone who knew something. If that ever happened, the Steward would have to act. In the meantime? Ydwin, the linchpin, didn’t even show up to eat in the hallway they so sociably staked out.

It was a good life, being a soul planted in a statue in the most important castle in the Dyrwood. The Steward was neighbor to the pillar of souls in a way that no kith could be. She was the original ensouled rock here. And she watched her backwards sibling’s development with interest.

Vailond’s brisk footstep had not changed. She walked with Malda at her blind side. Malda had vomited onto the library carpet last week and the Steward was not yet over it. The fact that the wolf had promptly eaten half of it again did nothing to endear her.

“Steward,” Vailond said briskly. “Things have been busy. I assume you’d tell me if a problem comes up.”

Not if she could fix it by any effort of her own. “Of course,” she said. Vailond did like the feeling of rulership over her chosen domain. “The animancers are processing the copper. We have had no further column flashes or Awakenings. Hiravias and Tekēhu are scheming and they won’t tell me what.”

“Nothing bad. Probably.”

“I must take your cryptic word for it. We have settled Maia in the inn. I assumed you would want her inside the walls.”

“In the best room I’m not currently occupying.”

“I am glad to see her again.”

“Something is nudging us back together.”

Vailond let that stand for a moment.

“I know,” the Steward said reflectively. “The gods intend to act on two crews together.”

“If something takes us all out but you survive, your responsibility is to the people of the county around Caed Nua. Nobody else gets to take over what I’ve done here.”

“I pray that won’t be necessary.”

“Prayer might be the problem.”

*

Trask? Old gods, or some upstart power? It was impossible to say. Once upon a time Vailond had been willing to accept ambiguities. But she had responsibility for more than just herself now, and mysteries might hold knives.

There was a workshop on the south side of the castle lawn. Vailond walked in and found the foreman. “I need a wooden circle,” she said. “Four feet across. And eleven rectangles about the size of my bootprint.”

“Milady? Taking up carving?”

“Something like that. Oh, and thirteen tiles. Palm sized. My palm. And six more in darker wood.”

“Keeping busy, then.”

“It’s for a game.” That part was entirely a lie.

He delivered her requested gear before the day was out. Vailond piled it in a corner of her room and relaxed for the night.

Aloth eyed the pile curiously. “Vailond? Are we taking up woodworking?”

“No. I’m keeping score.”

“For what?”

“Help me tomorrow.”

“Of course. For what?”

“If I start to explain we’ll be here all night.”

“Very well, keep your mystery.”

“You’ll see. Now…I mean, there are things we haven’t done since it happened. I’d like to do those things.”

“Truly?” Aloth’s attention was a sudden radiance. “I was afraid you wouldn’t want to. Indefinitely.”

Her heart flooded. “Try me.”

He was considerate past the telling of it, as careful as their first night and as expert as someone who had been doing this for nearly a year. Who had thought about it longer. Whom she loved. There was no pain at all.

Vailond woke early. The sunlight was battering her ugly floral curtain with the energetic determination of a fine morning. She pulled on her clothes, then took her knife and started carving into all the pieces her workshop had given her.

First, the eleven figures. Each got a shaped constellation outline. Galawain. Ondra. All the others.

“Can I help?” said Aloth, leaning pleasantly free of the covers.

Do you have a knife?”

“I have magic.”

“Fine. Give me an initial tile for all the friends we’ve traveled with. E, A, D, K, Sa,” and onward – her closest companions since the day she’d been created a Watcher. P, GM, H, X, Se, M, T, Y. And, not least, V.

“What are the dark tiles?” said Aloth.

“They’re gods trying to fuck us over.”

“I see. You’re trying to track which god sent which person.”

“It should help me map who hasn’t acted yet. For the ones who are following the rules, anyway.”

Vailond laid them out in a circle on the board, each god lying on its back.

“Hiravias was Galawain,” said Vailond. “He didn’t even pretend to hide that.”

“It’s interesting that he made his play in the open. If they are truly doing just one more thing, his actions are obvious.”

“Rymrgand. Fucking us over with the Awakening flashes. Dark tile for him.”

“Kana? Tekēhu?”

“Unknown. Tekēhu might be Ondra.”

“We can leave them in the center for now.”

“Good point. Maia?”

“She is a mystery.”

“Wael?”

“Maybe not that kind of mystery. After watching your torture as you describe, I can’t be certain he would help.”

“Playing both sides sounds like him. I’d give it a maybe. Now, you, me, Edér, Mother, Ydwin, those were all us.” She piled them in the center.

“Perhaps. It does seem like we chose Edér, but we might have been nudged ourselves.”

“Bastard. Let’s see. Woedica must be on the fuck-us side. Skaen, too.” Another two tiles. “Abydon…stack of copper?”

“Possibly.”

“Who does that leave us with?”

“Berath. Magran. Maybe Wael.”

“If it comes out against us I will personally hunt it down and cut it.”

“Hylea. Eothas.”

And Trask, she almost said. She caught herself in time. “What person tiles are we missing?”

“Xoti. Sagani. Durance. Pallegina. Serafen.”

“That does sound like a lot.”

“Perhaps. It may be only a matter of time.”

“If we watch we’ll know when they play.”

“Very sensible,” said Aloth. “I must say, I never expected to keep score with gods.”

“No. You were working to break people’s dependence on them.”

“Only to be drawn into their personal vendettas.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No. It isn’t your fault.” He stared absently at the board. “It was never your fault.”

*

Maia took the envelope from the young runner. She read it in silence. She scowled. She read it again. “He blew the prison up?”

“Who what now?” said Vailond.

“Durance.”

“You had Durance blowing stuff up?” said Vailond. “ _My_ Durance? In prison? Since when? Why?”

“Why _wouldn’t_ you put him in prison?” said Edér.

“He was there for us when it mattered,” chided Vailond. “Are the Rauataians just grabbing everything I’ve touched and shaking it until candy falls out?”

“We got nothing out of Durance,” Maia said levelly. “He made the Godhammer. So now, apparently, we’re never getting more. Bastard must have faked a ‘Godhammer’ the second I walked out the door. Just big enough to escape.”

“And you weren’t going to tell me.”

“I didn’t think you would care. He does not speak kindly of you.”

“He doesn’t speak kindly of anyone, that’s the only way he can stand to get out of bed in the morning. That doesn’t mean you get to shake him down for information about me.”

“It wasn’t about you.”

“Oh? Then what?”

“I can’t talk about this, Vail. We had questions for him. He didn’t answer them, and then he escaped.”

“Yes. That’s Durance.”

“I don’t know where he expects to go from here.”

Magran. Vailond mentally moved the tile. “Oh, I do.” It was only a matter of time.

*

Kana was relaxing over the eastern barbican. He rested on a crenellation and, upon receiving bawdy prompts from the two guards on duty, extemporized verses. He kept notes, naturally. Lightning might strike in the strangest of off-color puns.

He was the first to notice the two small figures, one especially short in furs, the other especially thin under a green poncho, walking briskly from the south. And he was certainly the first to recognize them.

“Rhymes with ‘explodey’—what’s this! Hey, open the gate! Open it!” He tucked away his notes and bounded downstairs to meet the two women. “Sagani! You are welcome multiple times over! And who is your friend?”

“Only the little nut that had to get rescued in the White That Wends,” the human said wryly. She was carrying a lamp that gave of a slightly creepy white-yellow light. “I had a dream said I should end up here. My name’s Xoti.”

Xoti explodey, good to know…“Kana Rua. Do you know where you’ve come to?”

“Oh, we’ve discussed it,” said Sagani. “Xoti, welcome to Caed Nua. Official seat of the Watcher. Personal friend of Xoti’s, by the way. Kana, how’s the interior?”

“Come and see! Do you require refreshment? Sagani, Tyrhos will be glad to see you! Xoti, where do you hail from? That accent is Readceran.”

“On less’n two dozen words, no less!”

“Sounds are my natural medium, my friend. Come, come! The Steward will want to see you.”

“You mean they put her back?” said Xoti.

“You mean she was gone?” said Sagani.

“All questions will be answered. I’ll have some water brought.”

“Where is she?” said Sagani. Different “she.” “She should be wearing this place like a skin.”

“This way.”

They picked people up on the way. “Edér!” Vailond twisted to spot Xoti, shapeless in a green poncho, holding her familiar lamp in one hand. Sagani watched beside her. Xoti had her other arm out and was running. “Edér, you disappearing act!”

Edér hugged her easily. “Well, now, if you stopped in more’n once a year…”

She bounced back. “We’ve had less than a year so far, I might surprise you. Where’s your boy?”

“Bearn is hard at work building analysis tools for our latest building up here.”

“He’s…what, now?”

“Animancy agrees with him. Not the creepy ‘infested toy starts developing a personality’ agreeing, either.”

“Edér,” said Sagani. “You have a boy?”

“Sixteen years old and still hungry. You’ll meet him, probably over dinner.”

“He must’ve aged fast,” Sagani said dryly. “Vail. I heard you had new adra and couldn’t say no.”

Vailond felt a rush when she looked at two old friends. “Welcome. Really. Come on, let’s go eat.”

“Something’s different about you,” said Xoti. “You look…heavier.”

“Well, thanks.”

“No, I mean, if I harvested you now, I feel like I’d get a couple dozen souls even though only one belongs to you.”

The humor had faded. “I don’t know about that,” Vailond said nervously. “I feel fine.”

“Well, that’s good.” She looked around. “Tekēhu!”

“Xoti!” Tekēhu strolled out of nowhere and waved. “Have you seen the pillar’s veil yet? Some of my finest work!”

“Pallegina? Maia?”

“Maia’s here somewhere,” said Vailond. “I’ve given up figuring out where she’s going and why.”

“And to think you liked the politicking.”

“I did not!”

“Mm-mm, I know what I saw.” She beamed. “Aloth?”

“Studying,” reported Vailond.

“Still,” said Sagani.

“Apparently being the smartest person in the world requires upkeep.”

Xoti smiled. “You’re still keeping him, ah, grounded, aren’tcha?”

“Yes.” Vailond made a face. “We’ve been happy here.”

“I don’t suppose Serafen’s been through.”

“Can you imagine him this far inland? For any reason?”

“Well, maybe not.”

“He sent me some supplies that came in handy. I owe him one…again.”

“He never kept score.”

“Sure he did. He just smiled about it.”

Xoti smiled. “You two were made of sturdier stuff than that.”

“What stuff are you made of?” It was Aloth himself. “Xoti. It’s good to see you. Sagani. You look well.”

“Xoti was just saying I was great with my ex,” said Vailond, who was delighted to see a cause for red cheeks that didn’t relate to her heavy soul. “I still think you’re better for me.”

Aloth’s eyebrows rose. “Not to put too fine a point on it, I agree.”

“I think her endgame is obvious,” Xoti said cheerfully. “I am glad to see you two happy.”

“Are you waiting on asking me what happened to my eye?” said Vailond. “Because you can ask.”

Sagani cleared her throat. “So. What happened to your eye?”

“Skaen. He wanted a word with me after I spoke to the gods at Teir Evron. And by a word I mean a really pointy claw.”

“That’s _disgusting_ ,” breathed Xoti. “Is it, uh…I mean, it doesn’t drip or anything, does it?”

“Not hardly. It isn’t bad.”

“Did you make the patch yourself?”

“No, an old friend Hiravias did it.”

“You really do have the whole gang, huh?” said Sagani. “Durance excepted.”

“Durance was usually excepted,” muttered Aloth.

“So you heard about adra and showed up?” said Vailond. “Both of you?”

Xoti waved her lamp. “I don’t know whether Gaun is coming back in any form I can understand. But I dreamed, and I came to the White That Wends, and Sagani did the rest.”

“Funny,” said Sagani. “How many friends are coming back.”

“The gods are doing something about that pillar,” said Vailond. “I recommend you not complain where anybody else can hear.”

Maia found them before their meal of cold meat and fresh fruit was done. “Getting this crew’s dangerous,” she said dryly. “No good comes of such gatherings.”

Xoti looked concerned. “We really missed you by Ukaizo, Maia. I hope your road has been the right one for you.”

“Strangely, it brought me back here. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

“Royal Deadfire Company treating you right?”

“Yep. I am here on their behalf, naturally.”

Kana set down a tray of tall tankards. “And you, Sagani? It’s a long walk from the White That Wends.”

“And not one I thought I’d be making again,” she said levelly. “But it was time. I guess I got used to traveling.”

Xoti raised her glass. “Here’s to great figures in history, particularly how fate is trying to turn us into ‘em.”

“To history,” said Aloth. The others chorused.

Then he leaned over to her. “I believe we can move two tiles to Eothas.”

She nodded. It made sense.

“I’d put money on Maia being Magran,” she added. “Trying to screw with Durance.”

“Or keep her away from his crafting.”

“Here’s a question, would Durance build a Godhammer if Magran wanted him to?”

“Any other god might ask him to use against her.”

“Poor slob.” Vailond shook her head and remembered the rest of the world. “Sagani, did you get to make that blanket about your quest?”

The dwarf tipped her drink back and relaxed. “No, but I made one about yours. My youngest can’t get enough of it.”

“Psht, he should hear about his mother’s five years.”

“Tell you what, he’ll hear all about this trip.”

After a leisurely meal Vailond directed Sagani and Xoti to the Brighthollow to rest. She then went to the Steward.

“It is a pleasure to see Xoti and Sagani again. Did you have a concern?”

Vailond counted the regular travelers. “Listen, the Brighthollow inside the walls needs to have thirteen rooms reserved. One for me and Aloth, one each for…” she listed. Those who weren’t already here could be expected soon. She wondered what would drop next, after they were all assembled.

“Even Durance?” the Steward said mildly.

“Oh, he's coming. I want him where I can find him.”

*

Vailond wouldn’t say she lived for her stolen moments with Trask, but she was eager for another. It took her mind off the injury that she couldn’t even blink away.

She tried to keep paying attention to people’s conversations.

“You all right there, Captain?” Maia’s eyes narrowed. “—Vail. It’s easy to forget out here.”

“It’s the most actual authority I ever had,” said Vailond. “Forget it. What were we talking about?”

“Why so much seafood ends up here,” said Edér. “I assumed you asked for it, Vail.”

“I like it,” said Xoti.

“I don’t think I’ve ever requested food other than venison,” said Vailond. “The Steward could tell you more about what traders are encouraged to bring.”

“The venison is old,” said Hiravias. “Have you spent any time north of the complex?”

“I haven’t had time,” said Vailond. And she couldn’t shoot straight anymore.

“A few snares here and there, you can at least get rabbit. Or come with me. We’ve got two eyes between us.”

“Please don’t ever make that your marching policy,” said Aloth.

“Does that mean it’s down to me?” said Sagani. “Because Itumaak needs to sleep a lot these days.”

“Oh, wait ‘til you meet Tyrhos’s pups,” Edér said brightly.

Maia chuckled. “Come on, a little solidarity is in order. I can fire two-eyed.”

Vailond managed not to be offended. “Two rights,” she said to Hiravias, touching her eyepatch. “We would still only hit half the time.”

“Is that how geometry works?” said Hiravias. “It's been a while since druid school.”

“The trauma does not stack,” said Mother. “However, neither does the advantage.”

“Well, she’s got more medical experience than I do,” said Edér.

“You talked,” said Vailond to the ordinary-looking but unshadowed Mother. “It’s nice to hear.”

“As I get older,” Mother said softly, “I find more that I want company.”

There was a thoughtful pause.

“I see that,” mused Vailond. “All right, I get sleepy fast.” She walked out.

Aloth followed her at a respectful distance. Once she reached her room in Brighthollow and lay down, he came to sit beside her.

"Xoti's dreams mean Eothas," she said, setting Sagani and Xoti's tiles.

"Good. How bad is it?” he said.

“Not so bad today,” she said. “Tomorrow, who knows. It was so nice to see everyone.”

He reached to touch her shoulder, then ran his hand down her back and slightly harder back up. The pressure felt nice. She didn’t have the reprieve of the night, but she had Aloth.

He climbed onto the bed, slipped off his tunic and boots, and curled up at her side. “If I could love you to wholeness I would,” he murmured.

“I know,” she whispered. “You practically do.” She threw an arm over him. He was there, he was solid, he didn’t feel like stone.

And her friends were here. The headache was nothing.

*

Pallegina knew the lines of the Wheel on the Water: eleven Vailian ships, lashed bowsprit to stern one after the other, rising up and down with the waves, taking its sustenance from the ocean itself. It would be a physical replacement for the Wheel on lost Ukaizo. The plan was implemented off the island of Poko Kohara, bitterly won, and it linked into the energy of the luminous adra at the island’s core. Three Vailian expeditions had foundered on this island, but they finally had control of a column.

The old Wheel of Souls had churned the ocean as it turned, the Vailian advance guard had established that in their glimpse of Ukaizo. Well, the Wheel on the Water would be gently spun and directed.

Pallegina knew everything about that project, because she had helped secure Poko Kohara. She had left Vailond’s company by then. In fact, Pallegina and Vailond hadn’t spoken since the latter had thrown her lot in with the Huana. Tekēhu’s people, effete and dissolute, had won Vailond’s sponsorship. It was maddening. But Vailond had followed her heart, and Pallegina had to help her people build a replacement Wheel from scratch. That was just the nature of responsibility.

So when she got the letter, she sat down hard on the edge of her bed. She stared out the window at nothing. She reviewed the letter in her mind. Some things only have to be read once.

The Wheel on the Water was gone. Two storms had smashed together and destroyed the whole thing. The ships were not only separated, they were battered to kindling. The Vailian bid to re-establish a flow of souls into and out of the afterlife had failed.

What could she have done differently? Were there favors she could have called in, people she could have cajoled or threatened? Or was this just Ondra being a possessive bitch? The goddess of the sea was as violent and capricious as her brethren. And now Vailian’s best engineering was set at naught. In no more time than it took to write this damned letter.

She burned it, as she burned all her correspondence. Some things only have to be read once.

*

People came and went around the dinner table. Whether training, researching, or gawping at the pillar and its possibilities, Vailond’s friends settled into Caed Nua, and into understanding one another.

The mood at the table was positive. Then Vailond, on a rare visit, entered the dining room. The table went silent.

Aloth stood. He pulled out the chair beside him—on his left. Her good eye would be facing the guests. It felt normal.

“Wine,” said Edér. “Let’s keep the goods flowing.”

“Vailond!” called Kana, raising a tankard. “I was just telling Tekēhu that you would never allow your wolf onto a ship. He has braved enough horrors with you as it is.”

Vailond grinned. “Tyrhos and Malda spent six months on board with me and Aloth.”

Some dogs might slip under the table and beg treats from the assembly of knees. Tyrhos was too large for this. Instead he padded up to Kana, coming halfway up the aumaua’s upper arm, and whined.

“No wonder he stares at me so dolefully! Noble Tyrhos, to be so betrayed by your closest friend! To be trapped at sea with a madwoman!”

“If I really wanted to bother him I would’ve kicked him off the boat.”

“For shame, my friend, for shame! Does your Malda know what a terrible mistress she has inherited?”

Malda was outside with her littermates working off energy. “I feed that beast everything Caed Nua hunts and she’s still not done growing. Now with the other two puppies…”

“We had enough meat to eat here,” said Edér. “You can always get us more.” The silence was a crystal gem. Vailond thought about it: about hunting at will, freely, with a full field of view. “I mean,” Edér said more seriously, “you can order every hunter in the place.”

“Yes,” said Vailond, not touching her eyepatch. “Of course I can.”

But sorrow could not hold lease for long. For once, nothing was chasing them. Not even cultists, Kana noted brightly. Not even runaway gods, added Edér.

“Though I reckon we were doing the chasing there,” he said thoughtfully. “Huh.”

A boy in orange and red ran into the dining hall and looked around frantically. The table fell silent as he ran up to Maia. “C—A—Maia. I beg a word.”

Maia eyed him mildly. “A little public, don’t you think? You look terrible. Come on, let’s talk.”

They walked out together. Maia walked in alone. “Vail, I just heard the damnest thing.”

“What’s wrong?”

“How much do you know about the Vailian project for controlling the cycle of rebirth?”

“Only that they have one. The Wheel on the Waves.”

“Hm. It was. A storm blew up. A big one. The ships were separated, some of them smashed or run aground. The project is in tiny pieces.”

“Ondra?” said Vailond.

“Maybe. I don’t know why she would get mad now. Aren’t the gods supposed to be intervening less?”

“’God.’ ‘Self-control.’ No.”

“I don’t know whether they can rebuild it. I think it’s on us.”

Vailond nodded. “To the surprise of no one.”

*

Vailond struggled to read the memo through her headache. She couldn’t go to the In-Between at will, which was frustrating Ydwin. They had few souls passing through the pillar. And without souls, how was one to test a soul direction finder?

“Vailond at a desk. A sight I never expected.”

That voice. Vailond looked up. “Right on time,” she said, feeling a little sick that he was.

"You predict the future now,” said Durance the priest, leering. “Disappointed?”

“Floored,” she said honestly. “I…oh.” He was staring at her eyepatch.

“And how much pain did the gods bestow to go with your wound?”

“I can manage it.”

“Let me touch you.”

Her first desire was to jump up and run. “I don’t need your coddling.”

“But do you want my skill?”

“Blowing shit up?”

“The _other_ one.”

“No.”

“If you believe pain transforms, you are already not the wild creature I knew.”

“Trials are your department, not mine. Maia is here, you know.”

“But at your sufferance? I didn’t fear her when I was in her cell.” Durance ran a hand down his shaggy face. “With that established. I can lay my mat in the main hall.”

“Don’t. We’ve built an extension to Brighthollow Inn.”

“Just like that?”

“Do you seriously think I seriously think that you would seriously be discouraged by anything I say? You’re staying. Obviously.”

“A learning creature. I look forward to watching your journey again.”

“Why? Because of the pillar?”

“I cannot change an adra shaft for you. But you may find my skills useful yet. I’m the only one here who has killed a god.”

Oh. What a great idea. Trask wanted it, Vailond wanted it. “Can you do it more permanently?”

“How can I know except by building?”

“Do you see any gods around here to kill?”

“One who wants to get close enough to do detail work with the adra pillar must take on a physical form. We can corral them…and destroy them.”

“Does it take much…stuff?”

“A thriving town with a luminous adra pillar can surely gather the rest.”

“You don’t just get full run of Caed Nua’s resources for whatever science project your revenge fixation has you working on.”

“Oh? Even in the shadow of the gods?”

Vailond looked at Durance. Durance looked at Vailond.

“Don’t talk to Ydwin. You report to me.”

*

Sagani was outside the stables. She sat cross-legged in the shade, and cradled a white fox’s whiskered head in her lap. She stroked its fur with light, even movements.

She looked up at Vailond. “He needs a lot of rest these days.”

“Don’t you wish we could share more of our lifespan with them?”

“I know. You were smart, breeding Tyrhos when you did.”

“He kind of did it when I wasn’t looking.”

Sagani laughed. “You know he thinks he’s cleverer than you.”

“I’m just a helpless adoptee. I’m trying to raise Malda to be a little more impressed with me.”

“Is it working?”

“Oh, Effort and Consideration are doing their best to un-teach her.”

“I’m glad Edér got ‘em. You think he’s ever going to settle down?”

“He tried. I dragged him up here.” Vailond dropped to one knee and gave the fox the tribute of an ear scratch. “Can I ask you about your family?”

“You can, sure.”

“Is it hard, being far away from them?”

“I spent my first eight months following Persoq completely consumed by homesickness. Not just my family, my house. The village. The hunts. But after a certain point, you have to face what you’re there for.”

“I see.” Vailond fidgeted.

“Something wrong?”

“You were assigned Kallu, right?”

Sagani laughed. “Yes, our parents made that match, and the elders cleared it. We just happened to like it.”

“So you fell in love. Like in the stories.”

“You could say that. It was pretty practical, but we were and are happy together. When you’ve got things settled here I’m going back. You understand that?”

“I wouldn’t force you to stay.”

Sagani hadn’t stopped soothing the fox. “You sure there’s nothing wrong?”

“How old were you when you got engaged?”

“Old enough for it to stick.”

“You said your husband did the child-raising.”

“That’s right.”

“I don’t know if he would like that at all,” whispered Vailond.

“Vail! Has Aloth asked you?”

“No! He doesn’t know I’m thinking about this. He’s so careful, I can’t scare him early.”

“See? You make things a hunt, and then you succeed at hunting. It’s an admirable skill.”

“I don’t know if he’s even thinking about this.”

“I could gather information.”

“Not yet. Except what you already know. I have seen so many pregnancies, felt them. I don’t think I like it much but it’s something you have to go through.”

“You could adopt.”

“I think he’d want one he was involved in making. I’ll have to ask him ten years from now when we’re both ready to talk about it.”

“Don’t drag your feet on the assumption that he wants to drag too. You could waste your whole life waiting like that and there’s no reason to.”

“Oh. That sounds wise.”

“I didn’t notice you falling for him, if you did back then.”

“I did.”

“If I can ask, what finally broke between you?”

“Practically dying at Clîaban Rilag. Spending the night with him in Twin Elms.”

“Wait, what?”

“I was seeing those Watcher things uncontrollably. I couldn’t sleep. He told me a story to focus on until I passed out, and when I woke up, he’d fallen asleep next to me. In my arms. We never talked about it again.”

Sagani smirked. “So that’s why you had a private room.”

“Maybe. What broke? Seeing him again at Port Maje. Kissing him for all the wrong reasons in Neketaka. Wondering about a million times why I wanted someone who couldn’t want a woman like me.”

“Sounds romantic.”

“I had a lover through most of the Deadfire campaign. He was nice but very definitely not for the long run.”

“Trouble?”

“The best kind. No, he was good to me, just not on a permanent basis. And then he left, and I asked Aloth if it was too late.”

“You know when I realized he was hooked? It was that night when Defiance Bay burned, and he let you know about the Leaden Key. He said ‘You can blame me’ and he looked like he was waiting for a death sentence. But it wasn’t just that he had put you in danger. It was that _he_ had put _you_ in danger, and that equation was killing him.”

“He was honest. He…became, honest.”

“He could’ve gone on hiding things, possibly forever. But that’s not the relationship he wanted with you. So he spoke up, at the risk of his life and livelihood. Hoping you would accept him if he laid it all out. Next to that, you think you can open one little talk about the future?”

“Pretty soon,” said Vailond. “When I can be sure a god won’t pop up and gut me and Aloth Junior, we’ll talk.”

*

Pallegina rode to the western gate. “Hail,” she shouted. “I come bearing a message for Lady Vailond.”

Word passed rapidly through the keep to Vailond, who had been writing a companion to her god wheel. She set it aside and raced down the Keep’s stairs and across the lawn to where Pallegina waited.

“Open the gate!” yelled Vailond. The portcullis pulled upward. “Pallegina! Are you okay?”

“An intriguing first question,” said Pallegina, riding up to tower over Vailond. “Perhaps we will have time to discuss why that should immediately have sprung to mind?” She seemed to notice Vailond’s eyepatch She seemed to dismiss it with a slight turning-away.

“Let me get your horse. I’ll have the Steward set up the library.”

“You brought her back from the _Defiant_?”

“A chunk of a statue was a weird thing to have installed on my ship. And I missed her here.”

They made little small talk, even as a guard brought them a jug of cold water and a basin of lukewarm water. Pallegina painstakingly cleaned her face and outer feathers, then drank from the jug. “Ac, I have never forgotten how pleasant it is to be between forced marches.”

“Skaen got pissed off at me,” said Vailond, gesturing toward her eyepatch.

“Unprovoked?” said Pallegina. “Between him and you I truly have no idea whether to expect that.”

“I had asked for answers from the gods. Why this pillar showed up. Whether I should expect more divine interference. Most of them wouldn’t answer. Skaen found me later and…yes. That.”

“It is a cruel wound for an archer. Now, I must reach the reason for my visit. Apart from…certain dreams from absent figures. No. Now that our project is fully prototyped, the ducs believe I have a strong position from which to negotiate.”

“Negotiate what? We’re all on the same side here.”

Pallegina smiled slightly. “And you believe that makes some difference. I am glad to see you have not changed.”

“Do you have a system built?”

“Ah. We did. We could build it again, barring Ondra’s ire.”

“I see. You know she’s going to back the Huana.”

“The Huana have no reasonable chance of building a solution! The Vailian Republics do!”

“Have you asked them?”

“The Republics have eyes in many places.” Pallegina looked at Vailond’s eyepatch and winced. “Sientere.”

“It’s fine. Are you going to replace the existing Vailian spies here?”

“Hm? I would not pass under the table what we could just as easily share. If you can harness the luminous adra here to direct souls, which it seems you are, well, that knowledge would be invaluable to the Republics’ holdings in the Deadfire.”

“I don’t want to hear ‘valuable.’ This is about rebuilding the afterlife. That’s bigger than money and it’s bigger than political gain.”

“Which is why you shelter a Rauataian spy?”

“Please, Pallegina. You and Maia both left me when it got political. And I don’t blame you, I would have done the same. But what I’m doing now cannot be allowed to go to a faction.”

“You have become a faction.”

Vailond winced. “I am happy to see you, I really am. If you wish to help, you’re welcome.” But she had to know that Vailond was holding back. And she know that Vailond had to hold back.

“Fairly spoken. In truth, I brought two volumes of animantic theory from the Republics. These are both very recent. It’s the best of our public works, and I offer it to your animancers.”

“Thank you.”

“Maia didn’t bring you that.”

“I will get tired if you keep score.”

Pallegina gestured dismissively. “Understood.”

“Listen, everyone’s going to be happy to see you. We’ve got practically the whole crew back. We even got Durance.”

“Why,” Pallegina said flatly.

“Well, he wasn’t exactly invited.”

“It seems that there are powers who wish to see us together again.” Pallegina set her jaw. “I look forward to finding out why.”

Vailond and Aloth weren’t together again until late at night. Vailond moved the tile. “The board,” she said quietly. “Hylea.”

Aloth nodded. “I am relieved to see her act on our side.”

“I really, really hope she did.”

*

Vailond was dueling Hiravias with wooden daggers, or trying. He knew better than anyone what a missing right eye did to you in combat. Edér watched to understand what he would need to cover when he was in a fight alongside her.

“Vailond.”

Vailond froze and whispered to Hiravias. The three locals looked across the lawn.

There were two elves. Short, as elves went, both men, an adult and a young adult. Their clothing was Aedyran and their hair was bright red.

Vailond tensed. Edér had never seen her snap shut like that before. “I’m busy,” she said, “make this quick.”

“Vail?” said the younger man. “Is it really you? We heard your name, but you…Watcher? Master of Caed Nua? Sea captain? I couldn’t believe it.”

“Your _business_?” said Vailond.

“Is that all you have to say for us coming from Aedyr?”

“Funny, it’s all anyone cared about when I came. What. Do you want.”

“Pleased to meet you,” said Edér, “I’m sure we have some time. You sound like you’ve come a long way.”

“They sound like me,” snapped Vailond. “I should hope so. They are my brothers.”

“Was that the sound of you and me getting downgraded?” said Hiravias.

Edér felt a pang. “Well, that’s great! Welcome!” He smiled at Vailond and Vailond looked back with eyes like icicles. “Not great?”

“She walked out on us a long time ago,” said the older man. “But none of that matters now. Vailond. Mother is dying.”

“Then perhaps you should go attend her,” said Vailond.

“Whoa! I’m sure she doesn’t mean that.”

“Edér. Stop helping.”

“We’ve come to take you back to Aedyr,” said the older man. “You’ve been gone too long.”

“We’ve exchanged no word for sixty years, Peyt. Do you seriously think a deathbed scene will be enough to move me from the home I’ve earned?”

“Please. It was my idea.” The younger man wrung his hands in delicate distress. “It’s killing her slowly. By the time she…we…oh, please. You’ve become a powerful animancer. Can’t you…do something?”

“You came all the way over here to make me do the thing that got animancy banned throughout Aedyr? Dig I can understand, but you? Peyt? You should know better.”

The younger man wilted. “Vail, we miss you.”

“Vailond. My name is Vailond.”

“Can we talk in private?” said Peyt.

“No,” said Vailond. “You can eat with me and my friends in an hour. Edér, please see that they don’t fall into any pits on the way.”

“Is that ironic? I’m having trouble telling.”

Vailond walked away.

*

“All right, everyone.” It was a private dining hall in the keep, now crowded with ten kith. “Introductions. I’m Vailond, and I belong at Caed Nua. That there is Edér, my family. Hiravias, my family. Grieving Mother, my family. Kana, my family. Maia, my family. Pallegina, my family. Aloth…my love.” Her eye narrowed. “And these are Peyt and Dig, who came over from Aedyr when it was convenient.”

Peyt shot to his feet. “Our mother is dying!”

“In the time it takes us to eat this? Doubtful.”

They ate in silence. People exchanged looks, except Hiravias and Vailond, who were only half qualified. Agonizing minutes later, Vailond spoke. “Mother and Father should like Aloth. He’s Aedyran, an elf, educated. Decent. And a million other things, but let’s keep it to their priorities. He is not boring, I’m afraid, but no more is he greedy, cruel, irresponsible…anything I saw demonstrated at home.”

Dig had a face full of freckles. “That’s not fair, Vailond.”

“Do you think I left because of my deep and abiding contentment?”

“You never wanted to hold up your share,” said Peyt. “Never. Always off after another butterfly. Or another handsome trader.”

Dread, a little late, lumped in Vailond’s stomach. “You don’t know anything about Creech.”

“Or Talvek? Or, who was that little orlan, I can’t imagine he’d feel like much—”

“In an asshole your size, probably not. They offered me a world, and I took it. I will not be shamed for that.”

Dig held up a hand. “You’re scaring us, sister.”

“You were too young,” said Vailond. “I know looking after babies is a limited-time thing, and it wasn’t you I hated for it. Did you know they wanted another daughter? Not a faulty one like me. A good daughter. To do her chores and look forward to changing her own baby’s diapers. That’s what they wanted.” And they got you, she didn’t have to say. This wasn’t really Dig’s fault. Peyt was the problem here.

Ydwin was reading something off her little note board when Vailond shooed everyone else out. “Ydwin? Did you get a chance to eat?”

“Taken care of. Did I hear you’re going to Aedyr?”

“No, actually.”

“Ah.” Ydwin’s traced eyebrows raised. “It’s just that it might solve our intake problem. I’ll explain. Come with me.”

### End of Act 2/4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The halfway mark!


	8. Begin Book 3: The Story So Far

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A summary of Books 1 and 2.

*wordless clapping*

\- Dyrwoodan children’s song, to be clapped every twelfth verse

Narrator: Refer to chapter 4 for The Story So Far I, which covers history and two games.  
Woedican cultist: Objection! Too much homework.  
Narrator: Or just keep reading. Six months after the destruction of the Wheel at the end of Island Trail, Vailond was sailing the Deadfire on the _Defiant_ with her lover Aloth. She had left people rebuilding Caed Nua, which she still considered her home. Then they called for her: a giant adra pillar had erupted where Eothas had risen.  
Eothasian cultist: I just want to say, my god can take credit for everything good that happens after this.  
Woedican cultist: Objection! Shut up.  
Narrator: Vailond gathered animancers in place, and started reactivating the Dyrwood’s Engwithan machines to guide the souls of the dead to a safe storage place in the In-Between.  
Skaenite cultist: Then the best thing happened.  
Eothasian cultist: Then the worst thing happened.  
Woedican cultist: I could do worse.  
Narrator: Skaen put out Vailond the petitioner’s eye.  
Eothasian cultist: Buuut…  
Narrator: Old friends are converging on Caed Nua, sometimes for strange or no reasons. It helps. She has also been corresponding in dreams with a mysterious man who claims to be a long-imprisoned twelfth god.  
Woedican cultist: Objection! He is full of lies.  
Narrator: In dreams he grants her her eye back, and talks a good game. She doesn’t trust him…mostly.  
Woedican cultist: What, who wouldn’t trust the likes of us?  
Narrator: But the sheer happiness of being whole again has discouraged her from telling anyone about him. Why would you publicly question a god who gave you a secret gift? Now, two of Vailond’s long-estranged brothers have come to Caed Nua, bringing news that their mother is dying…


	9. Summary Judgment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vailond follows her brothers to Aedyr for a family emergency. Trouble starts fresh off the boat. Pallegina and Maia cope with being left behind. Vailond makes a house call she had not expected. This chapter is about home away from home.

Eothas’ mercy is broad as the sun

Redemption, rebirth, he’s the new Shining One

  * Dyrwoodan children’s song



Ydwin ignored everyone in the dining room except Vailond. “Come with me, please,” she said, and started walking. “I’d like to keep your animal here when you go.”

That was new. “Beg pardon?”

“Tyrhos can detect fractured souls. And he’s not really young enough to go on the road, is he? My people can use him to help me with Awakened souls.”

“No experiments on him.”

“Just a few cranial measurements—”

“None.”

Ydwin nodded reluctantly. “Understood. We’ll get him a comfortable place to rest. Which, brings me to my second point.” She hugged her little noteboard. “I’d like to come with you.”

“Why?”

“Your forbearance. Just a minute.” She led Vailond downstairs to the long table at the front of the animancers’ laboratory and pulled out a shockingly large roll of paper. She unrolled it to reveal a map of Eora done in fine, precise handwriting. Vailond leaned over. There were markings for terrain height and type. There were arrows for prevalent current. There was a semicircle of constellations that Vailond understood at once should be imagined to arc over and under the map. By reflex now Vailond checked it. Eleven. Only eleven.

“What are the circles?” said Vailond.

“Hm.” Ydwin sounded pleased. “Significant adra deposits. You see some are just points. There are ambient energy fluctuations around all of these that…” Ywdin trailed off, checking Vailond’s eye. “We can read energy through the Pillar’s roots, and what we’re reading tells me that as of this month Aedyr should have a huge grouping of adra that nobody’s told us about. It could be spread out like Eir Glanfath. It could theoretically be another Pillar. We won’t know until we get there.”

“And that’s why you want to come with me to Aedyr.”

“That’s why I want to come with you in Aedyr.” Ydwin started rolling the beautiful map. Vailond almost told her to stop. “Will you consider it?”

“You really think there might be another Pillar?”

“I can’t eliminate the possibility. These readings only changed a month ago.”

“Can we…link that one to ours?”

“It’s possible. Difficult, if it isn’t luminous, but I think we’ve established that luminous adra can surface just about anywhere it wants. So. Should I be packing?”

“I’ll tell my brothers,” said Vailond. “I mean…people can change, in sixty years.”

Ydwin tilted her head. “Some do. And some…really don’t.”

“Is there someone waiting out there to make your life miserable?”

“I keep ahead of these things. And I know you do, too.”

*

“No,” said Vailond.

“I can still shoot,” said Maia.

“I don’t know what we’re going to find there but I’m not going to let a faction use it.”

“So bring Pallegina too. I don’t mind.”

“And let your countries go to war over what you took from my work? I think not. Please, Maia. Observe the people who come to the Pillar. Take some time. But you’re not coming with me.”

“Is it true that Ydwin calculated the existence of another Pillar?”

“I’m not going to answer that. If you want to stay at Caed Nua...there's still a lot to keep track of, and you're welcome.”

*

Pallegina looked off to one side. Her cheek twitched once, twice. “I understand,” she said. “When you make decisions, I must not be in the room. Would that I had fewer friendships like this.”

“You know your people would go to war over anything I found out there.”

“Have you considered that a war may be what this world needs to establish a stable government?”

“No, actually. I never considered that at all. I’m sorry. You can stay as long as you like. There's still a lot to track here.”

*

She went straight back to her room in Brighthollow. She did have some packing to finish, but not much. Mostly she wanted to be alone.

Aloth let himself in and froze, staring at her face. “Vail!” He rushed to her side and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “What’s wrong?”

“Rauatai and Vailia can’t go with us,” she mumbled.

“Ah. I know.”

“I miss Maia and Pallegina, but I can’t have them looting our project to advance their own. You know they’ll destroy what we’ve built as soon as they have their own answers. Can you imagine the Royal Deadfire Company controlling reincarnation?”

“I can,” he said quietly. “And you must fight it. I am sorry. I like Maia and Pallegina as much as you do. But they are products of their masters.”

“I just want to go. With the ones who never talk about colonies or advantages.”

“The ones who aren’t transactional.”

Thus went a picked group: Edér, Aloth, Ydwin, Tekēhu, Hiravias, and of course Effort and Consideration. Malda would stay with her sire to learn about souls.

They rode to Defiance Bay together, accompanied by a singing Kana to manage getting the horses home. He kept up a marching song for hours. Vailond’s brothers rode, a few lengths behind.

Vailond did not call on the duc this time. But as they waited on the dock for the passenger ship they meant to take, a runner came down from the ducal palace.

“You’re under arrest,” he squeaked.

“That’s nice,” said Vailond. “Run along now.”

Guardsmen sidled out of the crowd in five directions. Vailond rolled her eye. “Are you seriously going to make me do this?”

She felt a thrill up her spine. Around her, at the edge of her good vision and beyond, long smears of light were seeping out of the cobblestones. They rose in an arc over Vailond, now blazing in green and violet and orange. Something behind Vailond—Tekēhu? Hiravias?—started a harsh swishing sound.

Vailond was ready to run with it. “Do you really want to start a fight with a Watcher? You people know me. You know that I saved Heritage Hill. And you know that I stopped the animancers who killed Duc Aevar. Are you not a little—” the shapes were legion now, sliding in an unending wheel—“grateful?”

“I don’t think our halberds are going to help,” croaked one of the guards.

“That’s the spirit,” said Vailond. “Hm. So to speak. Now, we are going to take a ship and get out of your way. Won’t that make everyone happy?”

They saluted. They actually saluted. Vailond kept a straight face until they were all on the _Cercel._

Vailond joined Aloth on deck. “So?” she said. “That was you?”

“Inspired by Berath’s display in the Deadfire. Arkemyr’s Dazzling Lights,” he said in a faux-modest tone. “Slightly adapted for the circumstance.”

“You’re amazing.”

“Yes, well. We didn’t have Berath to intervene this time. And…I practiced, quite a lot.”

He had used it to lull her to sleep when her Watcher visions were too much. She was fully aware of this. She was still grateful for it. Now they boarded without another whisper of objection.

*

The _Cercel_ was a strange experience. It wasn’t Vailond’s ship. She was firmly, repeatedly told to keep down to the passenger compartment with her friends and her brothers. The deck called to her, the bow and the wind running behind, but it wasn’t her ship. She wanted to sneak up anyway, but she couldn’t even stay out of the way if someone tried to move in her blind spot.

“The _Defiant_ was a little smaller,” said Aloth.

“But it was all mine.” Vailond stared at the creaking ceiling.

“It was all ours,” he agreed.

“We could, ah…you-know-what,” said Hiravias.

“Without even washing first?” said Edér.

“No, what you sailors always do when you don’t like the captain!”

“We are not pulling an m-u-know-what,” said Vailond. “I don’t want to earn another death mark this calendar year, thanks.”

“She’s making that up,” grumbled Peyt.

“No, that one’s true,” said Edér. “Sticky few days, getting that sorted out.”

“But not sticky with blood,” said Hiravias.

“You’re a very literal man,” and Tekēhu mispronounced Hiravias’ name.

In the cramped cabin Vailond leaned against Aloth and went away, thinking of other times and places. A cipher could summon it to her senses, but she didn’t want to let Ydwin in. No, her inner fortress was for her and a particular elven wizard alone. And Trask, well, he had better not act if Ydwin was paying close attention.

The voyage itself was easy. When they shouted out for land Vailond bounded up to stare at the broad jungle mass on the horizon. A city spilled out over the water dead ahead.

“That’s it,” she said. A place she’d never thought to see again.

“That’s it,” said Peyt. “Come with me.”

*

Pallegina always ate with delicate, deliberate movements. Like she was expecting someone to stop by and rate her performance.

She looked up when Sagani brought her own bowl of stew. “Good morning.”

“Morning. You know, last night almost dipped to livable temperature levels?”

“I have known multiple climates. At least this one only rarely tries to kill you.”

“Maybe, but it’s not afraid of telling you it doesn’t like you.”

Pallegina smiled. “I truly did not expect you to leave your homeland again.”

“I wasn’t expecting it myself. But Eothas’ priestess…well, she hurled herself across my hunt, and I couldn’t let her die.”

“Xoti is remarkably self-sufficient. Unless her god commands otherwise.”

“A constraint you don’t bother with.”

Pallegina raised one feathery eyebrow. “I see no marks of Rymrgand on you.”

“Nah. I probably would’ve gone with Galawain. Remember Hiravias retooling his eyepatch to have a fang instead of an eye?”

“The contemplation of Wael did strike me as an uncommonly pointless exercise. And that was before we learned both Wael and Galawain were frauds.”

“You think they’re still in our lives?”

“Vailond seems to believe they continue to take an active role. Maybe a Watcher can tell.”

“She’s hoping they can leave us alone.”

“A matter to be wished for,” Pallegina said primly. “To be very much wished for.”

*

“It’s hot,” Ydwin said quietly.

“It’s wild,” said Hiravias, staring up and down the jungle shoreline. “I bet I could eat a dozen new kinds of animals here.”

Tekēhu said forlornly, “You could eat this air with a knife and fork, I say.”

“I expected the city to have more, city,” said Edér.

“It extends into the forest,” said Vailond. “Most of our cities do.”

“Our,” murmured Aloth. He smiled at her for no reason. She smiled back. They had both been born in this country. She wanted to take over this place so it was theirs again.

But, city conquest would have to wait. They needed to unpack their things, find a place to stay, and get anything they needed in the city before they started down the road on what they hoped was a recent map.

“Here,” said Peyt, “we can all get a meal here. Afterwards we’ll find a place to stay. You might want to leave your weapons outside.”

No one did.

The inn they entered was huge by any standard Vailond knew. Coning was a major Aedyran city. Her friends and family got plenty to eat and then shuffled into the front hall for directions to the sleeping quarters.

That’s when the armed kith appeared around them. The kith strangers outnumbered, and, for their weight, outgunned.

A big human spoke like filling the whole place. “If the Queen-That-Was could see you now.”

“Aedyr was formed under the auspices of Woedica,” muttered Aloth.

“Well, thanks for getting that reminder to me in a timely manner,” Vailond snapped. This was supposed to be an easy job. “Everyone,” she yelled, “weapons down.” She intended to cross this continent. Doing it marked as a murderer would only slow her down.

Edér looked friendly “Wouldn’t much care to give up the Last Word,” he said, hefting his hammer.

“The grimoire, too, down,” barked an enormous man with a lazy eye. Vailond sucked in a breath and looked at Aloth.

“There, that’s all the weapons.” The voice was familiar. Ydwin.

“There, that’s all the weapons,” said Lazy Eye. “Get them into cells.”

Nobody had given up a weapon. Vailond eyed Ydwin. Ydwin bared her teeth in a strained smile.

Vailond’s brothers didn’t turn a hair at Ydwin’s deception. Good. Peyt stepped up. “I brought her. Now, the thayning? I specified Jundéac. When do I get the keys?”

“You sold me out?” said Vailond. “For a house? I told you the house didn’t matter!”

“The opinions of an outlander abomination don’t matter, sister.”

“Is our mother even sick?”

“Our mother died five years ago. You would know that if you gave a damn.”

Vailond was falling, or felt like it. Her stomach was the wrong way up. Dead, and no one had told her? She had to find out in the middle of getting literally sold out?

“Move.” One of the guards shoved her.

Vailond looked at Ydwin and Ydwin shook her head. No more large-scale cipher tricks, at least for now. Vailond walked with her arrested friends, her dogs, and her curious brothers.

The jail was just next door. The guards, and it was a mix of humans and elves in ugly uniforms, pushed them across a dusty room and around a corner to a big cell. Vailond’s party didn’t touch their weapons, and everyone got in and sitting more or less comfortably. Effort and Consideration whined curiously, but they didn’t fight.

“Anything else you wanted, Peyt? Or was telling me about our mother enough?”

“Vailond. Nothing could ever be enough to make up for sixty years’ time on your dustheap.”

“You know why my friends were so surprised to see you? They didn’t know I had brothers.”

Dig, who was looking green, shook his head. “Your Aedyran friend knew.”

Aloth raised one eyebrow. “And, frankly, was happier not caring. Run along to your reward.” He looked at Vailond. “Or do you want me to make them stay?”

Revenge? Served raw? Vailond shook her head. “Let them go. They don’t matter anymore.”

Vailond crawled over to where Ydwin had knelt. The cipher looked at her with clear red eyes. “I do not believe I am strong or in practice enough to make them forget us all entirely.”

“We’ll break out under night. Maybe you can distract the guards on the way out?”

“Yes. Yes, after an hour’s rest, I think so.”

“Right, then. Time to relax.”

Aloth had gone to the white stone wall and now sat with his back to it, with his legs crossed butterfly style.

Vailond dropped the back of her head in his lap. She peered up at him. “Welcome home,” she said sweetly.

“I had less baggage last time,” Aloth said, sounding harried.

“They must not have realized what you are.”

“A genuine menace,” he said dryly. “You taught me how to be that. —Listen. Vail.”

“Hm?”

“The first time you spoke to your brothers, you mentioned children.”

“I did.”

“You spoke of them with such disgust.”

“I don’t hate children.”

“Really? You sounded emphatic.”

“I don’t want…my brothers’ power structure. I wouldn’t feel like a mother. Only a servant. It would be different, if…I mean, it could be different.” She smiled drowsily. “When things are less crazy…”

She turned to her side, head secure in his lap, and dropped off to sleep.

*

Vailond dreamed. She dreamed shitty irrelevant dreams. She looked around, in each one, for the fireplace and the man of stone. She wasn’t supposed to sleep long. She wanted to get to this in a hurry, and she wanted to get it done while Ydwin wasn’t watching. Nobody around her would understand…nobody should. This belonged to her.

Then she turned around and he was there. He stood from the armchair and gestured a smile that his chiseled face couldn’t show. He raised a hand and she felt the tickle, the scratch, the filling of her missing eye. “Your thoughts are rich and full of confusion,” he said affectionately. “Where are you, Aila?”

“Aedyr. Coning. Jail.”

Trask’s tan brow could only wrinkle up so much. “What? How did this happen? When did this happen?”

She blinked, delighting in her two eyes. She said, “If you came to me sooner you’d know. My family told me they wanted me. Then my animancer told me there’s a mystery amount of adra way to the north. Then my family turned me in in exchange for land and titles.”

His green eyes wandered between an abstract direction and her very concrete face. “Are you all right?” he said.

“Well, still in jail, but once Ydwin’s feeling stronger we’ll just break out again.”

“No wonder my kindred let you live. You’d be too stubborn to die for them. You wouldn’t even give them the satisfaction of being afraid.”

“Was that ever in doubt?”

He smiled. He reached for her hand and sandwiched it between his own. The touch was like warm sand. “Tell me. What do you hope to gain here, and when do you plan to return?”

She tugged at her neck to get some air into her tunic. She was happy to talk it over with him, and he made a good listener. He was always good with advice. At some point his hands fell away, but he listened so raptly, leaning almost over her. She explained Ydwin’s calculations and the path they decided to take to get the best chance at running into an adra formation.

“It’s really hot here,” she said at last.

“Ah,” he said. He waved, and the entire wall-width fire vanished, leaving only cold ashes. It left him the only fever in the room. Trask squeezed his eyes shut and groaned softly. “It takes effort—and I will not give up your eye to pay for it.”

“Thank you,” she said softly.

“I’m listening. I have no doubt you’re in professional hands. Don’t push yourself too hard in the jungle. It is a rigorous environment even for a body…” he looked away…“one accustomed to effort.”

“What was that?”

His cheek twitched. “What was what?”

“The Look.”

“Aila, I cannot notice you. This body of mine was not built for anything but endur…that didn’t help.”

Vailond giggled. She thought about trying to stop giggling, but really, why? Trask’s cheeks were turning a dusky rose. “Good gods, you do think about a body sometimes.”

“That isn’t what I was made for.”

“That’s fine. It’s not what I really want to start.”

“Honest.” Too late she remembered his godhood. Well, he didn’t seem angry and he hadn’t started extracting parts. He looked away. “I’m going to show you something. A side task next to your adra hunt. Think of a map. A map of Aedyr.”

“All right, I have a circular blob.”

“Hm-m. You’ll know when you get to it.” He touched her forehead with one hot, dry finger. Something slammed into her mind, shattering her defenses. Two places. She saw the forest and the mountain around them, felt the breeze and the quiet. The edges hurt.

“I’m sorry,” he said, lowering his hand. “Do you understand? Make a note on your map…here, and here. Original sites of Engwithan machines. If you still need to direct souls across countries, they should help.”

“And is that all business today?”

“What else should we talk about?”

“Are you still spying on the other gods?”

“To the extent I can.”

“Do you know who’s screwing me how?”

“That is a complicated question, Aila.” He dashed off a brief smile. “In general the gods have each agreed to commit one more intervention. Some large, some small and sentimental. Some are cheating. I can say for certain that Berath gifted you that pillar. Apparently you impressed it. And one more thing, you’ll see.”

“You can’t leave me with that!”

“Can, and will.” He frowned and reached for her cheek with the back of his hot dry hand. “You can handle it.”

“Trask…I haven’t thanked you. For this, for…” she touched her sensitive cheekbone. “And you deserve my thanks.”

“I have felt more in these past weeks than I ever thought possible. Because you reached out to me.”

“I can’t stay. I…” she straightened up toward him, and considered that a mistake a second too late…“I have commitments.” And just as she would not abandon them for him, she would not risk his goodwill by telling them. “Thank you for listening. I’ll have an adra formation plus two machines for myself before the week is out.”

“Be careful.”

She almost said “I promise.” For no reason she could name, she bit her tongue instead.

*

“Hsst! Edér!”

Vailond opened her eyes. Most of her companions were scattered in attitudes of interrupted sleep. The boy outside the cell was a teenager, all ankles and wrists. Edér sat up blinking and looked at him.

“Hey,” he said. “Want to get out of here?”

“Oh,” said Vailond. “Well, we were going to break out ourselves in another half hour or so.”

The boy looked around. “Nice armory,” he said. “Come on. There’s people want to talk to you.” He took a key and unlocked the cell. “Everyone out, quick as you please. Keep your things with you. ‘d like to know how that happened.”

“Guards,” whispered Vailond as she led the way.

“Our cipher’s on it,” he whispered shrilly. “Keep going.”

The boy led them through the streets. The air was thick and humid, the sky lost in gray clouds. The cobbled streets ran like a net draped over the moderate hills. The architecture here was more formal than the stilted houses of the Deadfire. The streets had low whitewashed walls on either side, and the docks were a wood practically black in contrast. It was a city one might paint when thinking of a well-ordered city. Vailond had never lived in a well-ordered city.

They crept into a low door into what looked like a half-empty warehouse. A reedy elf awaited them there.

“Woedica’s chosen,” sand the reedy elf. “Oh, wait, that’s not how that worked. Edér Teylecg. Welcome to the center of the resistance in Aedyr.”

“Wait, me?” said Edér. “I’m flattered, but…”

“Peace,” Vailond said quietly. “I just want safe passage through this city. If you have other questions, bring them to Caed Nua.”

The elf addressed Edér. “What are you doing in Aedyr? The empire that belongs to the goddess you defeated!” All of them swayed toward Edér.

He looked concerned. “Again, others were…oh, heck.”

“I’m on bigger prey,” said Vailond. “If the Queen That Was wants to stop me, well, I expect it. But she will fail.”

“Whatever it is,” their guide boy said to Edér. “Will you remember us?”

“We’re…wait a minute. Gordy? With the March steel knife?”

The boy flicked a small dark knife out of his shirt and back in. He grinned. “I never forgot what you told me about taking care of one.”

“I’m glad, but now you’re using it to fight gods?”

“Will you help us?”

“I’d be happy to, but Vail’s….”

“You are unstoppable.”

“Ex-cuse me,” said Aloth.

“Folks, I’m flattered, but I think you’re misunderstanding…”

Vailond seized Aloth’s robe. She seized Edér’s shirt. She stood in the electric center. “Tell yourselves whatever you want to,” she said. “I’m walking out that door, and I’m doing my part to replace the gods. Your assistance tonight is appreciated. You will be welcome at Caed Nua…”

“How else can we help, shining one?” the leader said to Edér.

“Look at my friend. Please.”

Everyone looked at Vailond. “All right,” said the leader to Edér, “what next?”

“You’ve found your paradise,” wheedled Hiravias.

“Vail?” said Edér. “We can sleep outside, can’t we?”

The leader moved closer. “Please, let my—”

“ _Nope_ ,” said Edér, and the travelers spilled out into the night.

*

Pallegina had set up a table outside the Brighthollow Inn, then helped herself to a chair and a meal from inside. The inn shaded the spot. Before her she saw the pillar that had started it all.

“Did you think they would be overturning nations to control you?” she murmured. “Although, the Dyrwood stands. Through a war, a Purge, another war, and a god…the Dyrwood stands. Are you all built as sternly as she is?”

Maia set down a cooked chicken. “I take it your tour of the facilities was as incomplete as mine.”

“You mean the animancer colony extending beneath the keep? Yes, I have not been invited in.”

“It was nicer on the _Defiant_.”

“It was nicer on the _Defiant_.—I do not understand how the little wolf-girl from Aedyr ended up in command of…this.”

Maia chuckled. “Mostly by trying to avoid it, I guess.”

“I should add to my report, Maia. How much do you know of the Vailian efforts toward replacing the Wheel of reincarnation?”

“Well, I know you’ve got your Giacolo headlining it. Pretty sure I have his eye color somewhere.”

“I cannot tell whether you are joking.”

“About work? I never joke.”

Pallegina and Maia, avian godlike and aumaua, sat side by side, watching the water fall from the angled Pillar.

“There you are!” It was a Human with a thick Dyrwoodan accent. She was wearing slightly frilly clothing edged in pink, but then, nobody at Caed Nua had a dress code or uniform. Vailond’s dislike of orderliness acted sometimes to the detriment of useful order. “Hi, I’m Traeva! I am authorized to update you on the progress of the Caed Nua development team.”

Pallegina and Maia exchanged glances, then leaned forward.

“So, like, with the Wheel gone all these souls of the dying—”

“We know this part,” said Maia. “What are you building in its place?”

The girl made a hideous frown. “I was just getting to that. Hmph. So, like, with the Wheel gone all these souls of the dying are pooling in the In-Between, which is this hella freaky—”

“We know that,” said Pallegina. “You are countering it with…what?”

Traeva’s face squinched in further disapproval. “You want this or not? So, like, with the Wheel gone all these souls of the dying are pooling in the In-Between, which is this hella freaky murkfest that isn't hot or cold or, and you'll hate this, even kind of a place where you age. You could be stuck alive forever--but, like, souls go there if they haven't any other place to go. Got some pipeweed? I'm tense.”

This went on for the better part of an hour before Pallegina threw up her hands. “Per complanca, it is like speaking to a waterfall and just as meaningful.”

Maia followed her into the Inn. “Easy there. You don't want to strain your umbrage gland.”

“You're taking this very well. Did you glean some meaning I didn't?”

“Nope. But your bullshit tolerance rises in the Royal Deadfire Company.”

“Disloyalty?”

“Reality. It's possible to see the warts on a country you love.”

“Maia. A suggestion?”

“Sure.”

“Do you wish to see something of the country? Dyrford is not far from here, it is hardly cosmopolitan but, well, it shows you a little of the land. And it helps explain Vailond.”

“Huh. Count me in.”

*

“You don’t have to do this,” said Vailond.

They were walking. Horses were too hard to keep quiet. They walked down a wide road with trees planted down the middle, and buildings lined either side. The overall air was one of care, craftsmanship, and no space for natural variation. A day on that boulevard, a night under the stars, and they spent another day on a smaller road where the traffic was mostly farmers and carts.

Vailond’s stomach folded itself into a packet deep in her gut and slowly twisted itself up further, and further.

“I saw her three years ago,” said Aloth. “She was in good health. Even then I saw her in the Cythwood—I never saw her thayn’s estate.”

“When I was growing up, a thayn was somebody you robbed as soon as you got smart or mean enough.”

“Ah. That would not have gone well for me.”

“Well, your mother had a real job.” She coughed. “Maybe I shouldn’t come.”

“What? Vailond, I want you to meet her. Why would I bring you this far, if not to meet her?”

“Yeah, well, maybe if I just keep my head turned.”

“She’s going to meet the person you are. You’ve never in all the time I’ve known you tried to hide that. Why start now?”

Her heart was thumping. “Look, she’s, I mean, a haemneg, that’s a kind of marriage. And I can’t think about that. I can’t think about that. And why would she want to look at me if I’m not…being that?”

“I think you’re overthinking this,” he said in a fragile tone. She wished she could take back the part about being unable to think about marriage. “Truly. Just meet her.” But something had gone out of him. Vailond dropped back further and left him trudging in the lead.

Edér watched him go, then turned back to Vailond. “Was that you pushing him away with both hands?”

“My eye got screwed, my hands are fine.”

Edér shook his head. “You’re hurting Aloth. And I told you once, if you ever hurt Aloth I will bruise organs you didn’t know you had.”

“I can’t. I can’t, I can’t, I can’t. It just hurts too much to look for a future that good.”

“And when did we ever have to face that alone? He waited six years for you. Why are you demanding more?”

“Because I still can’t look in a mirror? Why would I ask him to put up with that face?”

“Because he loves you, Vail. Don’t make it complicated.”

“I’m ugly. Admit it.”

Edér looked into her eyes. No, into her eye. His gentle blue gaze wandered across her forehead, down her nose, along either cheekbone, down to her mouth. She stopped breathing. Even after all this time, she stopped breathing. He got back to her eye and eyepatch. “No,” he said. “Still beautiful.”

“You never thought so.”

“I’m a bit emotionally rusty, not blind.” He smiled. “You be careful with him. He’s loyal, but he’s only kith, and kith fall apart when you slap them too hard.”

“Did you ever spend two days walking to your lover’s parents?”

“It was about twenty minutes to Kyla’s farmhouse. That was plenty of space to work up a full gut of worry. This…all right. Can’t be easy.”

“I’ll be nice.”

“Don’t promise me that. I’m just the observer.”

“Yes, but sometimes you’re easier to talk to.”

“Well, I am the avenger against Woedica. Or something.”

Vailond snorted. “And how do you like that job?”

“I’d never do that without you.”

“Thanks, kind of.”

“We’re better when we add up. You, me. Him, too.”

“Now I want to apologize.”

“Don’t let me get in your way.”

But she caught up to Aloth and did nothing but stay by his side.

*

Another turn, another road, another few hours. As the sun started touching the jungle forest treetops Aloth pointed. “There. Built into that hillside.” He set out faster than before. The others followed.

The light touched only one thing on that broad wooden estate as they neared: a woman in white, standing on a porch. She held out a lamp and watched Vailond’s party inch up.

She was an elf, and middle-aged. She shared Aloth’s fair skin and pale eyes. She smiled. “Aloth. Twice in three years, what news?”

“I’ve told you about Vailond, Mother.”

“Not looking at her that way, you didn’t.” She smiled. “All of you, come in. My name is Esthen. Yomur isn't home.”

She brought them to a wide low room that opened onto a garden. “Sit, everyone.”

Aloth didn’t. “This is Vailond. Edér.”

“Who has been described in heroic terms,” Aloth’s mother said with an impish smile.

“Wait, I have?” said Edér.

“Hiravias, a veteran druid,” Aloth said loudly. “Ydwin, whose vocation we won’t discuss in this country. And Tekēhu.”

“Far from your native element,” said Aloth’s mother, eyeing the marine godlike’s head-worms with cool but not hidden curiosity.

“You surround yourself with beauty here, I say. It is good to be received in such a home.”

“Thank you. Everyone, please, sit. Take your shoes off. You are with Aedyre now.” She gestured at unseen servants. “Your dogs look young to be so large, or large to be so young.”

Vailond patted Effort while Edér took Consideration. “They’re wolves,” said Edér. “But they don’t hardly bite.”

She took this in stride. “We will have a meal set for four legs and two in an hour. Do you wish to wash off?”

“Your hospitality warms the heart and cools the feet,” Tekēhu said fervently. “These windless roads are far thicker than my island nation.”

Basins of water were brought for washing of feet. Tekēhu played with his first, much to Esthen’s surprise; she seemed to like the sunburst he drew in glistening water. Finally he drizzled it back into his basin for the banality of washing.

Elven and human servants appeared out of nowhere. Wine and improbably good food was served. Esthen sat next to Aloth, with Vailond on his other side.

“Watcher of Caed Nua? Terror of the seas?”

“Vail is fine.” Should she defer? Was she the Mistress of Caed Nua in truth, or a girl visiting her lover’s family for the first time?

Esthen shot her son a compassionate look. “Single syllables can kill, Aloth.”

Vailond shook her head. “I never will.”

*

Esthen cornered her son alone in a glass porch overlooking the jungle valley. “You told me quite a lot about her. I had my suspicions, but by your own account at the time she didn’t. Does she know now?”

“Yes.” Aloth kept his eyes on the jungle as the dusk settled in. He smiled slightly. “She came to me.”

“Good. When you were growing up, there were days I wasn’t sure you would smile again. My responsibilities gave me few options…but I knew when you went to study that you would make your ticket out of that place. And I hoped you would find more than that.”

“I think I did. She makes me happy.”

“That just shows she has some common sense. Is it difficult, being linked to someone so conspicuous?”

“I don’t care. A number of things become unimportant when she is nearby.”

“Do you foresee this becoming permanent?”

Aloth’s eyebrows took their own initiative. “I don’t know. We knew each other for two months, six years ago, then under a year and a half here. That scarcely seems like enough time to plumb someone’s soul. She is firm in her loyalties, and places me highly in them…but I need time. Another year, maybe.”

“Or ten, knowing you.”

Aloth laughed nervously. “We can face crises indefinitely, but part of me wants to know whether I could really develop at her side, in addition to saving all kith.”

“A measured answer, Aloth, and a wise one. I pray that her response be equally responsible.”

“She keeps nothing from me. Not her frustrations, which she expresses quietly. And not her hopes. I have the letters. We have not spoken of the long term. She sounds nervous about marriage, and utterly unprepared around the topic of children. But that is in the world of hints. I believe that when I bring these subjects up she will deal with me honestly.”

“And in the affirmative, I hope. Part of me wishes to confront her. To make sure that she is not a repetition of your father, or even of your aspect. I could not bear someone who abuses you.”

“Abuses! Vail? Never. At worst she gets prickly about handling pain.”

Esthen pressed her lips together, then wavered into a smile. “I wish you every happiness. I always did.”

“Mother, when I faced adulthood I wanted to travel. That’s all it was, until her. And now there’s finally a place I want to travel to. She did that.”

“You keep strange company, and if I could test her mettle myself I would, with or without your agreement. But I am happy for you.”

*

“Vail? Will you walk with me?”

“Okay. Where’s Aloth?”

“Resting.” Esthen led her back outside to the deck. A warm wind was straining against the sheer weight of the day’s heat. “It is true you are from Aedyr originally?”

“Far north and east of here. Farming country.”

“Every tenth word you say is still in an Aedyran accent.” She smiled. Esthen Corfiser had the stability of a pillar. “I am so very pleased to meet you. Aloth was not always a regular correspondent, but when he wrote of you…it was like a secret he had kept until he could bear it no longer.”

“He can keep secrets pretty well.”

Esthen ran her pale gaze over Vailond’s face. “Do you love him?”

Vailond felt her chin come up hard. Did this woman really want to test her? “I love him enough to protect him. You know what he thinks of the Cythwood? You know what he thinks of your rotten beater husband? You think he ever would have met me if he weren’t running as fast as he could the other way?”

To her credit, Esthen did not back down. “I did my best to give him opportunities. Even after his Awakening. I knew that his mind would take him far away from one small man.”

“Leaving only his body to deal with it. Great move.” Vailond chewed the inside of her cheek. “He cares about you. He talks about you without cringing, finally.”

“So that’s what you think of me. Entirely.”

“Entirely? Oh, no.” Esthen stiffened but her expression stayed calmly intent. Vailond kept her gaze steady. “He is loyal, when the cause is right, when it’s worthy. And he will backstab clear through a wrong cause and a liar. He is loyal to you. Therefore I’ll believe in you. But I don’t understand you.”

“They say the Watcher of Caed Nua renders summary judgment on anyone and anything in her domain.” Esthen frowned. “But you judged him worthwhile.”

“Always.”

“I wanted him to find happiness.”

“If I can make it mine, it’s his.”

“Then I think we understand one another perfectly well.”


	10. The Jungle and the Wild

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is about soul work in Aedyr, and the way steps turn toward home.

_Ondra rules over each wave and each tide_

_Ocean and storm are the forces outside_

  * Dyrwoodan children’s song



Maia stood outside the keep, feeding Ishiza piece after piece. That’s when Durance crept toward the keep proper.

And stopped, and backed off again. From that day forward, a little food went missing from the larders every morning, and the cooks blamed thorough rats, which some might say was perfectly accurate. He had no contacts to trust in the keep just then, but he managed to steal enough to continue his prototyping. Maia, who watched everything, didn’t manage to detect nothing.

*

Vailond's expedition left laden with supplies, both fresh food for the day and dried for the march. Roads got thinner and more winding as they passed through the jungle. Steeper, too. The soil here was black and loamy, the vivid underbrush wild and razor-edged. The trees were well spaced, branchless at eye level, and tall, shooting up through the moist air to form a canopy that blocked the sun as effectively as rainclouds. Everywhere was the sound of insects, and often the sight of them, too, large energetic things zipping from place to place. The birdsong was always distant but never absent as they walked.

Vailond set the direction now, but she didn’t feel comfortable explaining why. “A strange man in my dreams told me where to go”…would not go over well.

The roads got thinner under the joining canopy, but they never went away. Vailond finally reached a place underlined by a dull roar. She remembered the image in her mind. She took the path until it turned to follow the edge of a waterfall.

It was dizzyingly high, spilling from narrow edge to careless curtain, and their path had come at it at the halfway mark. She looked down at the white slamming into the light green water. The roar got into her legs and chest, unstoppable and thrilling.

“Edge,” coughed Edér, laying a hand on her shoulder.

“I know,” said Vailond. She stepped back.

Tekēhu leaned in her place. “The joy of a mountainous continent. It warms the heart to see such a fine specimen all the way out here.” He reached out and half the waterfall started floating sideways. He drew a sparkling bead curtain out from the main fall of the water. He let it collapse back into the flow. “Fine indeed,” he murmured. “Salt water is always easier for me, but I make no complaints against such raw material.”

Meanwhile, Vailond was looking at the narrow path that had brought them so far. “He said it would be here,” she muttered.

“Who did?” said Aloth.

“Some maps I saw back at Caed Nua,” Vailond said hurriedly.

“And you didn’t think to share them?” said Ydwin.

“Sorry. There was a lot going on.” Well, that much was true.

“Which level?” Ydwin said crisply. “Did your map specify?”

She thought of the image in her head. She had the map, and she had a specific view of the machine, somewhere murky. “It didn’t.”

“Vail.” It was Hiravias. He was standing behind a gnarled pair of trees before they leaned out into the water. He pointed into the slick stone beside him. “This way. Can you imagine how long it’s been since anyone came this way?”

“Stay out here,” she said, “see we don’t make any friends. Aloth, with me.” She wasn’t really sure what else to expect around the machine. Trask had been helpful about the machines so far, but she wanted backup she could trust. She had this under control.

Aloth raised his bronze lamp and led the way through a twisty corridor that opened into a round, dead-black chamber. Against one wall…yes, that was the Engwithan machine.

“All right, let’s see if this is anything different from the others.” The controls were familiar, though. This thing had not been activated like the Dyrwoodans' were. No doubt Woedica would have gotten to it if her conquest of the Dyrwood had succeeded.

Something…splorched…behind her. “Carry on,” Aloth said coolly. Something whooshed through the air and the splorcher went silent.

The machine lurched into a spinning motion. Vailond read the instructions and labels in the ancient symbolism of the Engwithans. They had built these well. They had built them to last millennia. And they built them to be able to capture nearby loose souls and forward them to a kindred machine. Like, say, the one that fed souls to the Pillar.

“Keep going,” said Aloth. She turned and he was lobbing a fireball at a giant sporeling.

“Done here,” she said.

“Ah.” Bam. The reek of burnt plant slammed her. “Very good. Let’s not wait for the rest of the cave.”

“After you,” she said. “I’ll vine anything that tries to follow us.” That didn’t require precision work.

“Reliable,” he said. “I do my best to contribute.”

“You do.” All this, without Aloth? “You do.”

*

Maia followed Pallegina through the mud-rut streets. Pallegina’s boots would be proof against six-inch slop. Maia did her best to navigate while Pallegina spoke. “Supposedly Vailond found her star cipher here. I am skeptical of the claim, but then, perhaps that is the mark of a great cipher.”

“Out here? I don’t mind telling you that ciphers bother me.”

“They are crucial to the study of animancy.”

“Ergo, by association…”

“And yet you are helping a woman set up an animantic pole.”

“Like North and South, huh? Or Magnetic?”

“Ac. It will become just such a landmark. It will require protection.” Pallegina looked around. “What do you think of the town square?”

“Muddy,” said Maia. “Edér would love it.”

“Edér did love it. He was mayor for five years. After he removed the cultists from the tunnel under his house.”

“So your life was composed of hundred and twenty proof weird shit before any of you came to the Deadfire.”

Pallegina’s mouth curved. “Accurately expressed.”

“There anything else to see in town?”

“I had half expected Vailond’s cipher to appear…either that, or more cultists. Failing that, at least we had a day’s variety from Caed Nua.”

“Not bad,” said Maia. “Maybe Ishiza spotted something interesting on the way ho—back.”

They talked about things. About the Deadfire, Maia’s long career, Pallegina’s relatively brief assignment. About Dyrwood’s wars and the political shifts in the Archipelago since Vailond had captured lost Ukaizo. They talked, by fits and starts, about returning to their respective governments empty-handed because Vailond had been dead set on elevating the Huana. It seemed to hurt Pallegina as much as Maia. Oh, Pallegina was backing the wrong horse, but Maia couldn’t deny that she was smart and insightful, and loyal.

By newly developed habit they stopped by the Steward in the Keep when they arrived.

“Steward,” said Maia, with all the warmth she would grant someone in a flesh body, “anything new?”

“Letters for you and Pallegina. Ask Pagia, she should have them sorted.”

Maia nodded. “I ever tell you how nice it’s been having you around to manage things?”

“Under challenging circumstances,” added Pallegina. Getting blown up and then installed in an ocean-faring ship would be enough to make most souls quit their jobs.

“Thank you.” The Steward’s sweet voice sounded almost flustered.

Pagia was a page who worked in the main keep, running messages, maintaining candles, and cleaning things with the young workers. It was hopeless trying to track her down, so Pallegina and Maia went to lie in wait in the main hall.

“One of Vailond’s favorite pastimes,” said Pallegina.

“Picking the advantageous ground and waiting eight hours for the right someone to happen by? First, second, and tenth pages in her playbook.”

“Given the power of our party, there are many problems she could as easily have solved through action.”

“I don’t think she ever took a victory for granted.”

Pagia was still holding a sheaf of envelopes when Maia and Pallegina pounced. “Here,” she piped, handing Pallegina an envelope, “and here,” to Maia.

The two agents eyed one another and scattered to side rooms to read their respective messages.

Pallegina barely scanned the script on the front of the envelope. She cut an end open and slid out three thick cream paper leaves. That was different. Her orders usually came on light paper with much bolder writing.

“M., matters are moving quickly. You are to remain embedded at Caed Nua…”

This wasn’t for her. Pallegina studied the page margins, the envelope. This was for Maia. This was the spymaster Atsura’s requirements for his operative.

And she had the whole thing.

A good representative of her government would read and memorize at once. Who knew what good a spy’s instructions could be for the Vailian Republics’ intelligence apparatus? She could return it to Maia after.

Pallegina swallowed and went looking for Maia.

She rounded a corner and stopped dead, heart in throat. Maia was there, holding the envelope opened but folded over.

“I think this is yours,” said Pallegina.

“An even trade,” said Maia. “I didn’t…”

“Neither did I. Consider it a diplomatic courtesy.” That was about the most cuddling Pallegina was ready for. “Good day,” she said abruptly, and went to find a quiet place to read.

*

“I have one more machine,” said Vailond. “That’s all the map gave me.”

“All right,” said Edér. “Where to?”

“North.”

The land was getting rougher. The jungle forest seemed to take each new ridge with bursts of undergrowth and slices of sunlight. They crossed water but did not try to drink it until Tekēhu had had a chance to squeeze out…

“You’re happier not knowing,” he said, and restored a ribbon of water to Vailond’s waterskin.

Onward. Hiravias developed a habit of biting leaves that stood close to eye level. “That one’s probably poisonous too,” he murmured, and spat.

“Should I bother telling you to stop?” said Vailond.

“I might find something really good,” he said brightly. “Hey, d’you think we’ll see more of the big round critters? I’m in a mood for meat.”

“Which is probably poisonous too,” mused Edér. “Careful with your tongue.”

“Do you know how much further?”

“Only a vague idea," said Vailond. The map in her head was clear, but the distance scaling felt off. "We’ll probably arrive late tomorrow. It’s supposed to be in a sheltered area, we should be able to rest right next to it.”

Ydwin nodded. “Rest,” she said. “Very well. I will not slow you down.”

“If you’re in trouble, tell me. I can’t let you disappear.”

A little curve of a smile. “You never would, Watcher.”

At night Vailond rubbed Effort’s paws while Edér convinced Hiravias to help him with Consideration. The wolves were brave, but they were young.

Late tomorrow was right. The machine squatted deep in a cave under a tree twice as wide as anyone had seen on the way there. The place had a sense of cold tension, of suspended dust waiting not to settle but to smother.

Vailond activated the machine. They got out, and slept under the trees.

“All right,” said Vailond, “the next part is yours.”

Ydwin pulled out what looked like a sextant, pointed it in apparently a random direction, and nodded to herself. Turned halfway, repeated. “Very well.” She took another measurement. “Excellent. This way.”

The jungle stretched on. “I don’t have a distance yet,” said Ydwin. “But it looks like it’s a single deposit. We might have another Pillar here.”

“Who’s for fresh meat tonight?” said Hiravias, slipping from some underbrush to rejoin them. “A lot of it.”

*

They heard the river from a quarter of a mile away. The forest grew over its banks, and in between them the river was a madness of white foam and heart-slamming impact.

“I don’t swim,” said Aloth.

“Mm. After all that time at sea?”

“I didn’t say I can’t. Merely that I don’t.”

“I would have difficulty calming this,” said Tekēhu.

“It’s all right,” said Vailond. “Remember that trick I learned?”

“Truly? Across this?”

“Yes. Across this.” The solution she was considering was…outside what she’d ever done before, but she was impatient, and this place was full of life. It would support her.

So she knelt between two stones and put her hands on the ground just shy of the warm water. She reached into the world around her for life, for growing, for twining. Vines sprang from the ground under her fingers and started tangling with one another. Concentrating, she send them forward, and up, woody stems now, arcing across to the pressure-bared stones on the far side. She had to make it strong, and she did. It was a wooden arch springing clear of the water and over to root on the other side.

Her best work yet.

“Shit,” said Hiravias. “Where did that come from?”

“Something I learned while you were gallivanting around Eir Glanfath.” Vailond coughed. “Let’s hurry, these don’t usually last long.”

She crossed first. Hiravias bounded across next, exclaiming at the craftsmanship. Edér led the wolves across. Aloth looked neither up nor down, and Vailond saw the clenched muscles in his cheek and jaw. Tekēhu flattened the rush of water beneath just to show he could.

Vailond could shout back to Ydwin, but the pale elf was stalking onto the arch.

And part of it cracked. Ydwin fell half a step. Vailond screamed and extended a springy vine rope. Ydwin climbed it to safety and immediately turned back. There was a thunk as of something solid coming down the river and Ydwin cried out. Her bag was in the water, sweeping away.

Vailond fixed the vision of the package in her mind. “Effort, fetch!”

Edér came up beside her. “Vail, are you sure? That is nasty terrain.”

“That was food.”

“Okay. Good counterpoint. Consideration, go check on Effort.”

“Smart,” said Vailond.

“One of my less appreciated traits,” he said in a tone like shouldering a heavy load.

The wolves came up empty. Ydwin looked like someone had cancelled a festival day.

“What are you missing?” said Vailond.

“Clothing,” clipped Ydwin. “A few animantic instruments. And my adra.”

“Your luminous adra.”

“Which we can’t get more of here.”

“Which is what you need to, er,”

“Not be a ravening undead? Yes. So long as my soul is dissociated from the cycle of reincarnation, I must feed. And that means kith or luminous adra.”

“Any chance our mystery adra is luminous?”

“There is always a chance. Especially if it was a recent development. A recent, god’s, development. If it was intended as a matching bookend, I have every reason to believe it is luminous adra.”

“All right. So we just have to find it.”

“Do you have any more machines to seek out?”

“No. That’s all I heard about.”

“Understood. Then we can press on.” She swallowed hard. “We should press on.”

“Exactly how often did you need to eat soul essence?”

Ydwin shook her head. “Feeding time was soon.”

“Ah. Let’s get on that. As soon as the dogs are back.”

“Understood.”

*

Sagani strolled into the first-floor library where Xoti was losing herself reading. “Hey,” she said. “What do you say to a girls’ night out?”

Xoti looked up. “Doin’ what? I’m not much of a hunter.”

“Vail never took you on a hunt?”

“The quarry usually came to us. At a dead run.”

“There’s supposed to be a ten-point stag in the forest north of here.”

“Should we save it ‘til she gets back?”

“Nah, she’ll enjoy the antlers when we bring it back. Come on, I’ve got Malda, and probably a ladies’ exception for Tyrhos too. Then I’ve got Maia and Pallegina on board. And Mother, probably.”

“I still don’t understand who ‘Mother’ is. It she just a prank?”

“We’ll ask her if she wants to be known. Come on, sunrise tomorrow? Just bring your god’s favor and your favorite knife.”

*

The forest north of Caed Nua was a dense conifer stand, painted in a range of shades that averaged to darker than a broadleaf forest.

“Do you understand me?”

Tyrhos looked blue-eyed at Sagani’s eyes.

“Stag. Can you find me a stag?” She gestured, a huge animal’s height, its spreading antlers. “You and Malda. Stag.”

Tyrhos lowered his head and bounded into the forest.

“Did that do anything?” said Xoti.

“I have absolutely no idea,” said Sagani. “Let’s stay spread out, but close enough to yell.”

Maia felt comfortable here, even with the strangeness of hemlock and spruce. Ishiza had to hop from pine branch to pine branch, unable to spread his wings and unable to spot anything if he flew above tree cover.

It was Pallegina who raised the cry. Maia barked acknowledgment and warning for Xoti off to her left. Sagani was there in range of the white stag seemingly before Maia had finished calling out.

Sagani opened. Maia shot from some yards away. Both shots hit glancing blows. The great animal began to bound away.

Straight up onto Pallegina's blade.

An image crashed into Maia's mind: this forest, these people, a danger barreling through the forest toward Pallegina. Maia cried out and sprinted for the godlike. Just then a boar rampaged out of the woods, past where Grieving Mother was weaving something with her fingers.

No time to worry about the stag. Maia shot straight down the boar's snout. It kept coming, its tusks waving. Pallegina, properly warned now, vaulted above the boar's charge and sank her blade between the animal's shoulders. It slowed and tottered to a stop.

Maia looked around. "Here," yelled Xoti, and they formed up again on the slow, wounded animal. "It's scared. And dying. I can ease it. Oh, you have a stubborn soul, don't you?"

"Let me help." The stag fell to its knees. Mother touched its skull and hummed something. The animal relaxed to the ground.

"If you're going to end it," she said, "you are free to do so."

It was a slight touch of the sickle. Then it was done. They took their trophies and went home.

*

Vailond's group found another faint road and took it a high lookout.

“There,” said Ydwin, pointing. Vailond had a flash of exactly where it lay, and she looked, and it was there. Green adra, tall, angled, above the treetops, exactly like the monolith back home.

Ydwin picked up the soulview stone with trembling hands and peered through it. “Luminous,” she rasped, and started forward.

“Get to this before the cannibalism, I’m happy,” soliloquized Edér, and rushed after her.

Her sense of balance and direction could not be faulted. The party followed as she took the thready trail down, hurled herself into the forest, lured and compelled by the pillar ahead.

An impulse led Vailond to look at Ydwin. She looked dapper. She looked rapt. She raised a soulview stone and peered through it. Vailond wondered whether she saw a tenth of what a Watcher could. Seeing Ydwin now, if Vailond could grant her that power she would. In a heartbeat.

“We’re going to have to write this down,” Ydwin murmured.

“Let me know how I can help,” said Vailond.

Ydwin gestured with the hand not currently rifling through her bag. “Deal with the dragon, please.”

That’s when Vailond looked up. Not as a Watcher, just as a physical, very frail person facing the thing on the pillar. The thing that had appeared on the pillar was an adra dragon. As Vailond watched it spread its glistening green wings toward the sky.

“Who are you?” called Vailond. Even if she could shoot worth a damn, it might not damage an adra dragon. “Are you the guardian here?”

“I guarded nothing. I am Caracyclia. I have slept soundly,” she said. “The law keeps people away, or perhaps fear, or perhaps some admixture of luck bestowed upon me in elder days. I have slept soundly, and no one has come to disturb the Eld Valley. Nor its new Pillar. In truth, this woke me. Was it made for you?”

“How much do you know about Berath?” said Vailond. “Ydwin, can any possible good come from more of these?”

“I’ll spare you the calculus, but, yes.”

“I see.”

“Let me see you, kith.” The dragon leaped off the pillar and described a soaring circle before dropping lightly to its enormous clawed feet. “Little one, are you a friend of Berath?”

Vailond spontaneously choked. She coughed wildly for a few seconds. “I—am—boy—you could _say_ that.”

“His and her ordinance is my law. If this Pillar came to me, it came through their desires. Come closer.”

“Are you going to eat me?” said Vailond. It seemed like a fair question.

“Are you going to desecrate the Pillar?” said the dragon.

“Almost certainly not,” Vailond possibly exaggerated. “We need a sample.”

“Come. Bring your forehead to mine.” Caracyclia bowed her great adra head. Vailond felt a strange fascination. That was usually a sign of something bad, but in spite of herself she approached and touched a hand to the cool colossus’ forehead.

“Okay,” she whispered, and leaned in to press her forehead.

The change in awareness was abrupt and wrenching. Like being called into the In-Between again for another endless babblefest on the part of the gods. Here, though, she heard only two voices. “We’ve been waiting for you. Here, you see, there are two, as promised at Teir Evron.” The voice was that of the Pallid Knight twined with the Usher: the aspects of Berath. “Use them well.”

She felt the dismissal, just a minor blackness consuming everything she’d ever known. When she came back Edér was holding her from behind, and Aloth was waving one hand with a buildup of arcane power.

“I’m okay!” yelled Vailond. “I’m okay. Don’t attack her.”

The dragon reared up. “They could not harm me,” she said, sounding amused. “But I accept that you wish to preserve their lives.”

“More than anything,” said Vailond. “Ydwin, could you explain the situation?”

Ydwin’s eyebrows went up. She looked at Caracyclia. She looked at Vailond. “Yes, I could,” she said. “I’m not certain how scholarly my audience is.”

“I have had no conversation since before the mountain dwarves went away,” said the dragon. “That’s a long time.”

“Impressive,” said Ydwin. “Now, then. There’s been an interruption to the flow of souls through Berath’s Wheel.”

“But…how? My master and mistress are forever.”

“Yes, but their construct is not. Another god destroyed it.”

The dragon burst up. “Who did this? Who betrayed the order of my master?”

“Eothas,” said Edér. “He has his reasons, I imagine.”

“Tell me everything. No. Tell me from the beginning. When the outsiders built their machines.”

“Aloth?” said Vailond. “This is your specialty.”

“Yes, well. It is.” Aloth stepped forward. “Make yourself comfortable. We have a great deal to go over.”

Ydwin started scraping from the pillar’s edge and touching her tongue to her fingernails. It seemed kinder to look away.

*

Hours passed. Caracyclia was a terrible listener. She would sit in rapt silence for five minutes, then jump back with a detail from ten minutes back, run it all over a sidetrack, get confused about the names, require an explanation of the family trees (again), and only then would she allow Aloth to continue.

Aloth was flustered. He often looked Vailond’s way. But he also seemed…flattered? Vailond loved his stories in the evenings but she knew damn well she didn’t care about history in the waking hours. There was too much to do. This dragon did not have other things to do.

Vailond headed out to the woods and laid a couple of snares. Effort tried to bite one and Vailond had to cut him free. “Well, we’ve got to stop that,” murmured Vailond. Consideration headbutted her hip. These were not tame dogs. Vailond had years of bonding with the wild to even get close to communicating with them, and by “communicating” she meant “getting them to respond like domesticated dogs.” She could understand why Effort was a terror; Edér was a nice man who loved animals, not a specialist in the wild.

“Listen, could you come with us to protect the other Pillar?”

The outer edges of the dragon’s wings trembled. “My place has been here for many years. My place will be here when the land withers away. I will protect this Pillar. I will allow no one near who does not bear your sign. This is what I can give you, little elf. And you, storyteller, who calls her his commander.”

“Aw,” said Vailond. “You did?”

Aloth’s ears were turning red. “It seemed wise to remind her of the acting authority.”

“When we have our pillar. The ‘intake,’ right?”

Ydwin nodded and wiped her chin. “I'll send a copper net with some animancers to get this settled. This, this is _history_.”

*

“Hello, Bearn. Hello, Tyrhos. You’re looking well.”

The big old wolf whuffed civilly.

Bearn perched on the arm of Caed Nua’s keep’s throne. He faced the stone bust of the Steward where she hung to one side. “Hi,” he said. “Got quiet here, huh?”

The quiet was thoughtful. “Many of the most…dynamic…Caed Nua elements do seem to be gone. Do you miss Edér very much?”

“Edér has something to do other than farming and improving my education. I’m not living in a one-room house we built. I should be grateful.”

“And your studies?”

“My worst days are just turning into a creep. The animancy has been great. Animancy _made_ this world. You’re, um, probably the best qualified to talk about that.”

“If you ever want to talk about what brought me here, I’d be happy to.”

“Not right this minute, but thanks. I was actually going to ask, you know her. Lady Vailond. What do you think she’s doing out there?”

“Seeing her family again, I hope. She’ll have so much to tell us.”

“You think Ydwin’s…she clammed up with some measurements right before they left. She had marks on this map she’d locked up. You think she’s going to find what she expects out there in Aedyr?”

“Does Tyrhos stop you from stealing maps?”

“No, why?”

“Nothing. I suspect that if Ydwin and Vailond went out for something, they’re going to get it.”

“Sure. But if I’m eighteen by the time they get back, I don’t have to do anything Edér says.”

*

The hike back through the jungle went quickly, largely because Edér sliced any and all blockages with brisk, overpowering enthusiasm.

“What do you think of my home country?” said Vailond to him, curling vegetation out of the way with the kind of concentration she used to make vines.

“Your insects are about ten times too big. Then, that ‘rodent’ Hiravias killed? Ten times too big. I don’t want to know what the wildcats are like.”

“Ah. No, you wouldn’t.”

*

Coning was a busy port, but Vailond saw through its docks immediately.

She stood stunned. “No,” she managed, and started running.

Coning was a busy port. Vailond ducked under chests as men hauled them around and jumped over rope barriers and gaps in the docks. Her heart pounded, her breath grew ragged in the salt air.

And then she was alongside the _Soheina_.

It was a Huana ship crewed by former slaves from Crookspur’s cruel trade, close to a year ago now. Vailond accosted the first person she saw on the dock, a tattooed dwarf.

“You,” she said.

“You!” he returned. “The Captain! Maybe that’s why Ondra wouldn’t let us sail in any other direction. Come, come, we never had the chance to show you around the ship!”

“Where’s your mate?”

The dwarf looked innocent as he ushered her. “He’s aboard. He was your crew originally, wasn’t he?”

Crew. First mate. Lover. “You could say that.”

Aloth and the others were slowly catching up. Vailond beckoned. They all deserved to see Serafen again. She just wanted it first.

And then, strolling up onto the deck, it was him.

He had upgraded his outfit with some serious-looking brown leather and several colorful sashes. They had nothing against the blue of his fur. His boots were to the thigh, and polished. He was still carrying the old pistols.

“Cap’n,” he said, smiling, “you’ll start catching flies if you carry on like that.”

“You look well,” she said stupidly.

“Previous week of storms notwithstanding, I’d say I be doing all right for myself.” He looked at her eyepatch. “Someone get tired of you shooting straight?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Maybe after a few ales, eh?” He grinned and looked past her. “Edér. Aloth. Tekēhu. All these in one place and no _Defiant_?”

“We were inland. We just came back to get passage back to the Dyrwood.”

“Well,” he drawled, “like we need a route back to the Deadfire.” He stopped. He set his jaw under a cocky smile. He looked like he was waiting for her to get angry.

“Serafen,” she said. “It’s good to see you, but I can’t ask you to ferry me around.”

Tekēhu spoke behind her. “Ekera, it would be good to have freedom of a ship on the way. This huddling belowdecks was not a pleasant experience.”

“I’m not trying to chase you,” she said.

“I know, lass. Summoning Ondra’s wrath at will seems a mite outside your wheelhouse.”

Aloth cleared his throat, for no reason Vailond could see.

“Let’s talk to the captain. How many be you? Six?”

“We’ll bring our own food.”

“The ideal guest. Come on, then, all of you.”

Hiravias openly eyed Serafen as they crossed the deck. “I didn’t know we came in blue.”

Serafen snorted. “Close your other eye, I can be any color you like. Come on, let’s get you settled belowdecks.”

Vailond came back up once everyone was settled. The _Soheina’s_ deck was different from that of her old home. She found a spot near the bow and felt the wind whistling up from behind, blowing short strands of hair over her eyes.

When she spotted Serafen, she crossed to see him.

He grinned at her. The old, fearless grin. “We don’t have to talk, lass.”

“Are you happy?”

He half smiled. He looked out over the water. “Aye,” he said. “You?”

“I’m down one eye and wandering the world trying to keep the gods’ madness under control.” She sighed. “Yes. I’m happy.”

“I weren’t always rightly sure that you and the prefect would work out. He be fine for idealizing people, but taming them? That be a messy business.”

“He lets me be me.”

“You always were low-maintenance. The more I sail the more I appreciate that.”

“What about you? Breaking hearts?”

“Oh,” he cleared his throat theatrically, “a girl in every port, two in the busy ones. You know how it goes.”

“So that’s the reason you’re sniffing around new continents.”

“Aye, you’ve found me out.”

“I’m really happy to see you.”

He chuckled. “Don’t come crawling back now.”

She scowled. “I never—!”

He chuckled louder. “I know. Things to do, lass. You’ve free run of the ship. Mind your non-nautical friends.”

“They only damage things they mean to.”

“High praise.” He turned away. It was pleasant to watch him swagger away. It probably always would be.

*

Tekēhu stood with a foot up on a barrel, staring off the bow. The wind blew his head-worms to one side and his shirtlessness looked completely natural. He was back on his home territory.

“That whole trip was a lot less bloody than I thought,” said Vailond.

“We follow your lead,” he said. “When you choose not to shoot, possibilities open.”

“I regret nothing I’ve done.”

He chuckled richly. “Nor should you. But if you wish to know why we had so little violence, I say that it has been because you chose alternate solutions at most opportunities.”

“Sure, when they deserve it.” She stepped to the gunwale and leaned over it. “Look, an albatross.”

“They say each albatross carries the soul of a love who has died at sea.”

“Oh. Should we not sail under it?”

“Ekera, I judge that one already ensouled. You are in no danger.”

She could test her crossbow, but that hardly seemed necessary. Would Serafen end up in a big seabird? Had that counted as love? It was too late to ask. He would like being an albatross. Big, free, tough enough to stab enemies to death with nothing but his mouth. But she knew where his soul belonged: someplace up and free.

“You drifted with that bird,” Tekēhu said gently. “Have I offended?”

“I haven’t thought about him day to day,” said Vailond. “Is that disloyal of me?”

“To be caught up by every past love would be a fate I could not well endure. You should not try to.”

“It’s nice the storms shoved him up our way.”

“None of us would say that is welcome until you said it first.”

“Serafen’s here,” she said. “It’s great. We’ll be guests, and then we’ll go home.”

“A perfect plan, I say. I for one will be glad to see Caed Nua again. Even without the sea.”

*

Trask cleared the armchair. Vailond rubbed her temples. She wanted her eye illusion, but she was tired. He stood. He tamped down the flames in the fireplace. It made things cooler until he came to face her.

“Aila,” he said. “Are you unwell?”

“I’m just tired. There’s been a lot going on.” She gestured at the cooler fire. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“I thought it would make you more comfortable.” He looked at her. What heat there was was coming from him.

She cleared her throat. “I did miss you.”

Trask didn’t say anything as he brought her eye back. He handed her the ivory-handled mirror. It never, ever got old. She looked at all angles into her mirror and handed it back.

“I have limits,” he said gently. “Do you ever get tired of that first look?”

“No. Not even a little bit.”

“Can you bear it? Waking.”

“I have help.” And again with the other man. “Wow, that wasn’t supposed to mean—”

“It’s all right. You should have a life past the intrigues of the gods. There is one I have heard of…Aloth?”

Something cold crept into Vailond’s guts. “Who told you that?”

“Intuition,” he said coolly. “You value him.”

“You leave him alone.”

“I will, of course.” He gestured, and the chill was gone. “There are things I am utterly unqualified to help you with.”

“So why are you helping me?”

“Because when the gods are redundant they can die. Myself. The others, if necessary. What you are doing to replace the Wheel of reincarnation is a necessary step. Cutting Berath out of matters? That is a satisfaction two thousand years in the making. Yes, I want you to succeed.”

“When you talk about dying. Even in dreams?”

“Yes. Does that matter to you?”

“I won’t see you.”

“You have a life without my tricks. Perhaps when you are as weary as I am…but I would not wish that upon you. No, when I am gone you will not return to this room. And my pleasing illusion will no longer be there for you. I am sorry.”

“I should care enough about the right things to not mind that.” She closed her eyes and pressed them with her fingertips. “I don’t, I don’t care.”

“I value a quality power imbalance, I would scarcely be a god if I didn’t,” he said, “but I dislike that it costs you something so dear to your heart. Where are you tonight?”

“On a ship for Defiance Bay. I think we’re off Readceras.”

“Site of my brother’s glory.”

“Sure, apart from the war.”

“Surely you do not shrink from conflict?”

“I shrink from a kill that I can’t eat. And I can’t eat kith.”

“I see. Do you wish to know Readceras’ ancestral machines?”

“That’d be helpful. I can’t go deal with them right away.”

“Here. I’m sorry it won’t be more comfortable.”

He touched her forehead. The knowledge burst into her mind, a map of total clarity, of feeling the wind around the three Engwithan machines in their long slumber.

“Ah.” Trask half turned and took a few steps to one side. Then spun and paced to the other. He pushed his black hair back. “I am nearly out of time, Aila. I wish I could do this more. I am trying.”

“I’m always happy to see you.”

He gestured a smile. “Where you are, can you see the sky?”

“Sure. Horizon to horizon.”

“I always regretted being depowered, shoved into an emotionally stunted construct, and hurled into jail when they handed out the constellations.”

“I could make one up for you.” She startled herself. She had only ever made up constellations for one person, and that was very different. “What shape do you want?”

He seemed to give this due consideration. He was close to her, for some reason. He reached for her hands and she took his, the touch rough and warm. “I think I only want one star,” he mused. “Is that good for you?”

“There’s one that rises high in the summers, almost overhead, it’s brilliant. It’s green.” Shyly, “Like your eyes.” It seemed bad to leave that there. “You…do you ever take a mirror to those eyes?”

“After all this time? I know what they look like. My memory for these square yards is very good.”

“Can you really not just bring up someplace new?”

“No. The shape of my prison is not…what can be understood with width and depth and height. You can come to it, but I cannot go, not without more effort than I’ve ever burned. I might kill myself trying.”

“Don’t,” she said reflexively.

“You prefer this to untroubled nights, Aila?”

“My nights have been trouble for years. That doesn’t scare me anymore.” She took a deep breath and wondered why she hadn’t asked the most relevant question. “Trask?”

“Yes?”

“What was there, before you made the Wheel?”

“Less of a system. More of a spill. Souls were often damaged or lost. The In-Between had shroud after floating shroud…some of them rotted to pieces and tumbled back to the physical world. Kith were not so strong then. The Engwithans looked after their own, but they lacked the scale of the Wheel before they created the gods.”

“But after the Wheel was destroyed, souls didn’t go back to floating like that.”

“They are stronger and more stable now than of old. Not so easily blown to and fro.” Trask signaled a smile. “You ask me of my earliest memories, and I do not resent revealing them to you. Who would have guessed?”

“How much life experience did you get?”

He gestured vaguely. “Less than a century. Arguably less than a decade, it took them time to craft my prison.”

“You always talk about preparing this room for me. Is this not your prison?”

“It’s as close as I can show you. I…did not know you. I thought fire might please a dweller in the Dyrwood.”

She gestured. “I like the forest behind me. It’s…oddly regular and disturbing, but it’s pretty.”

“I didn’t design the forest. That was always there. It can be your exit, should you choose to walk out. No, the limit of my imagination was the chair and the fireplace.” He signaled a smile. “I don’t get out much these days.”

“It’s good,” she said.

“If I can heal your eye you don’t care about the venue.”

“When did I get that obvious?”

“I pay attention. I grow weary, Aila. Get home safely. We will meet again.”

“I know,” she said. “Rest well, if you do that.”

He smiled. “I can.”


	11. Man against Machine, Woman against Construct

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is about sharing information: Aloth, Trask, Durance, and more.

_Wael hides the mystery, watchful his eye,_

_When he speaks up, revelation is nigh_

  * Dyrwoodan children’s song



*

Ydwin stopped walking just shy of Caed Nua’s walls. The Pillar rose above them, and she turned her sextant to it and peered through a soulview cube.

“Everything all right?” said Vailond.

Ydwin sighed. “Everything is as I left it. It’s good-looking.”

The party scattered to rest. Vailond made it to her bedroom and stopped.

Durance straightened, leaning hard on his staff. “We need to talk.”

*

“I require parts,” said Durance. He walked at a ravaging pace, posting his staff like a flag and leaning over it in swing after swing.

“Usually you manage those on your own,” said Vailond.

“I have built a life on enmity, and seen it torn away by an uncaring god. In the end, what is one kith? In the end, what are all of them?”

Vailond tried to reason that back to its source and couldn’t. “Bundles of wants,” she said. “We’re all of us just trying to get something. You, your Magran’s favors. Me…” She coughed. “I forget,” she whispered.

“Love and a clear trail,” Durance said promptly.

“What did you do, Durance? In six years?”

“I traveled,” he said hollowly. “I stayed at shrines and villages. I…considered my service. The deaths I saw, the ones I assured. There was a whore I could not stop remembering. And then I heard word of your revenge.”

“It isn’t revenge. With luck it’s shutting a door in her face and never hearing from her again.”

“Let me be there for the slam.”

“I’ll let you do it yourself if you want.”

The corner of Durance’s mouth twitched. “A bundle of wants,” he said. “Scarcely justified, but too true to deny. Listen: I have not been idle in your castle.”

“Meditating?”

“Ha. Examining old thoughts makes them no wiser, no matter how I try. No. I am building.” He leaned closer to her. “The gods must not know what I am building.”

“You’ve only built one thing in your life.”

He nodded.

A Godhammer? Here? “Don’t blow up my castle!”

“If I can get the gods gathered here? Would that not be worth it?”

She thought of Trask. Trask would love that weapon. Maybe she should mention it. But…no. That was too much power for a prisoner to wield. No, this stayed between mortals.

“How do you get them here?” she whispered.

“You are our best chance,” he said, leering. “Perhaps, if they bring you to the In-Between again for a conference…”

“They didn’t like doing that, and then I told them all to go away.” Revenge. Freedom. “If I think of a way, then promise me you’ll have the bomb there.”

“Such a sentiment from you.”

“Big as you want, if I can get them together. I don’t know if I can get an object into the In-Between.”

“A physical portal will be necessary. Perhaps someone will be able to help us with that.”

She stared. “Who?”

He looked like volcanic stone, his eyes shiny and impervious. “Perhaps,” he said, and scuttled away.

*

“Ondra,” said Vailond, shifting the S tile for Serafen onto the board under the Ondra-icon figure.

“Who does that leave?” murmured Aloth.

“Woedica hasn’t claimed anything, but she’s a bad tile. Rymrgand, bad tile, he stopped flashing the Pillar. Hylea, Pallegina. Eothas, Xoti and Sagani. Abydon, Serafen’s shipment. Ondra, Serafen. Skaen, bad tile. Magran, Maia and Durance.”

“Are you sure?”

“They came from the same direction.”

“Would Magran deploy Durance a second time?”

“I don’t know. Keep him in the center. Pillar or Pillars, Berath. Galawain, Hiravias. And Wael…who knows?”

“Kana and Tekēhu, maybe?”

“Or the Wheel on the Water.”

“Or both. Any one of these might cheat. Wael would.”

“But a lot of them built up the Caed Nua crew. I might even put Edér, Ydwin, and Mother under Berath. That leaves only you and me. Whatever they think is coming, they want it to hit our faces first.”

“And all the honest moves have been expended.”

*

Dinner was everything it should be. Durance vanished. They used the great hall and filled maybe half of it. The travelers caught up with the home guard, the wizard caught up with the cipher, the storytellers caught up with everybody. Impromptu singing was had, and Hiravias acquitted himself well opposite Kana. Tyrhos and the young wolves wandered at will, openly begging, and at least a third of the diners rewarded them.

Aloth made a dramatic recitation of trying to keep up with the adra dragon’s skipping attention. Maia made a tactical evaluation of Dyrford, which had Edér sitting up straight. Ydwin summarized the likely future of the Pillars, and Sagani broke down the stag hunt. Tekēhu spoke of the mastery of the salt waters, and Hiravias reported on the development of the Deep Well gardens. “Nothing ready yet, of course. Don’t tramp on the seeds.”

Vailond stayed up as late as the others. If there was a future to save, it started here.

*

Tyrhos kept vigil outside the cage. Bearn had had another outburst, and nearly gutted a sleeping Tyrhos. Now the Awakened soul stayed in the cage.

And Hiravias stood on the outside. “I hate this place,” he said.

“You’re on the outside of it,” said Bearn.

“Do they keep you in here?”

“When Tyrhos isn’t around to keep watch. Apparently my older life is…not nice.”

“Interesting. The Awakened soul I knew became unconscious when his mind wasn’t in charge. Is it like that for you?”

Bearn shuddered. “No. I feel everything he does. And he is awful.”

“Listen, I couldn’t stop a Watcher’s visions. But nibbling out part of a soul? That’s something I might be able to do.”

“Nibble…? You’re making fun of me.”

“I’m going to sit right here until you change.”

“But you won’t be able to tell the difference.”

“There are things I can smell, my friend.”

Bearn sat down with his book. Hiravias, surprisingly, sat cross-legged and stared.

“Do you mind?” Bearn said at last.

“Not at all,” said Hiravias. “Soul-dealing is a game of patience. I thought your animancy lab would’ve told you that.”

“I trust them over you.”

“Don’t say that until you’ve seen me work. I’ve really branched out from the ‘devouring the living using only my teeth’ act.” 

The season was turning cool, and Bearn shivered again. Random druids notwithstanding, he was bored. Wasn’t that supposed to be the trigger?

Then something knocked him back from his own eyes. A cold overlay on his thoughts began to swirl and pull together into a shape he did not know, but knew. It sent tendrils into his arms and legs and up the back of his head.

“Wow,” said Hiravias, snuffling. “That shit’s pretty special.”

Then something worse happened. The orlan began to…stretch. His orange fur started multiplying, his limbs lengthening, his clothes melting into a suddenly muscular torso. And his face…his face didn’t bear naming.

Bearn cowered before the giant staelgar as it pawed the door open. The thing in Bearn’s limbs spun, smashed a leg off the chair, and swung.

The thing that had been Hiravias swung and batted the hand aside. It snarled and pounced, sending Bearn to the ground. The pain was distant. Bearn’s old soul was experiencing most of it, or maybe the fear was scrambling his feelings.

The thing that had been Hiravias snarled, its giant staelgar jaws starting to slaver. They opened. Bearn’s other self struggled like a madman and Bearn would have helped if he could. The thing set its jaws over Bearn’s head.

Through the stink and the wet and the fear, something changed. Bearn tried to move his arm and it moved. The other self was gone.

“Did you really…just…?” he said to the orange orlan at his side.

“That was strangely tasty,” said Hiravias, “and you can just do it yourself next time.”

“That bad?”

“I wasn’t sure I could come back. This is not going to be my job going forward, understand?”

“Completely. Thank you. Listen, I didn’t want that monster in me. Thank you.”

Hiravias scoffed. “Yes, I’m legendary at helping people defeat their inner demons. You’re not going to turn back into a killer if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Yeah. I was worried.”

Hiravias grinned. “Further depravity will have to be out of your own imagination.”

*

Vailond stood near the great pillar where it angled toward the sky. Workers had ascended on scaffolds, chipping off the unwanted loops of adra. Tekēhu had stopped the fountain of water that had been watershaped up the pillar’s spine and down into to the deep well.

She had them leave one loop, way up, straddling where the flow of water would be. Twelve was for Trask, who really did help.

The comfortable presence appeared beside her. “Vail?”

She smiled and cast him a sidelong look. “Aloth?”

“I was thinking about our recent adventures. Is your Watcher vision comparable to your physical vision?”

“Except twice as big now, yes. It’s more depressing than ever.”

“What I mean is, can you perceive depth using your Watcher senses without your eyes?”

Why would one ever volunteer to use that vision when it wasn’t critically necessary? “I never really thought about it.”

“Can you accurately shoot at things that have a soul?”

There was a silence.

Vailond turned, staring up at his endlessly patient eyes. “Can I?”

He handed her her crossbow. “I think I wound this correctly.”

She laughed. “I need to do this by myself. But I’ll be back soon, one way or another.”

She didn’t make it all the way. She reached the gray stone pavilion outside the grove when Hiravias, short, orange, scratching three consecutive body parts in the time it took her to get in range. “Good hunting,” he said brightly. “Are you safe with that thing?”

Vailond explained. Hiravias looked cheerful. “Being a Watcher is an unfair advantage!”

“Great, when it’s not driving me insane it’s useful.”

“I shouldn’t talk, I’m sometimes a giant cat monster. Claws up! Should I sniff you out an animal? Do all animals have souls? I can’t tell when I’m biting them.”

“Any one should do. A deer, if you can spot it.”

“’If,’” he said.

Together she made their way under the forest eaves. Caed Nua was a fine place with a fine keep and a fine inn, but the forest was her heart’s first rest.

Vailond chose a big tree bole and put her back to it. She opened her mind to souls—not a personality scan or detection of the dead, but a plain, simple opening to any soul energy at all.

“There,” she said, pointing. It was faint, but she knew herself.

Hiravias had to venture forward a couple of steps, sniffing. “A deer. Do you want him flushed?”

“Yeah.” She bared her teeth. “I want a moving target.”

The deer ruffled the leaves, bounding, ready to disappear. Its soul was a clear shape, like a shining overlay on Vailond's vision. She tracked and shot. The animal dropped.

They gathered. “Your skill is our deliciousness,” said Hiravias. “Does this mean your eye won’t slow you down anymore?”

“I still only have one eye on inanimate objects,” she said. “But…wow. This is the first time I ever felt good about being a Watcher.”

“Only took you six years.” Hiravias patted her shoulder and she didn’t even jump. “Want to clean it here, or bring it in?”

“Let’s clean it here. For old times’ sake. Got a bag?”

“Well, we’ve got an about-to-be-empty sack of fur.”

*

Vailond eagerly leaped into the fireplace room. Trask was standing at the mantel, resting one elbow on it, meditating on the flames.

“Hi,” she said. “You’d never believe…you’d never…”

He looked at her with green adra eyes.

“My eye?” she pleaded.

“Patience, Aila.” The corruption of her name felt so natural in his voice, from his lips. “There is something more I want you to see.”

“My eye.”

“Sh-sh. Remember your other eyes. Have you ever seen your own soul?”

“Of course not. We don’t have soul mirrors.” At least, none she’d ever felt like examining.

He sighed. “Not anymore, no. I forget, sometimes.”

“What were you going to show me?”

He walked to the wall and separated a round flat sheet of dull metal. He rolled it out in front of the fireplace and ran his fingertips over the upper curve. “Look.”

She didn’t like to sink into her Watcher’s vision. She did it, though. The pain in her head eased. She saw her image in the metallic disk. She was barely visible as a milky-white outline. In and around and above her were shining white ribbons, twisting, winding, rejoining, part of a whole, part of a thousand variations. She felt his arms around her, his hard body behind her. Like being clasped by the earth itself. She stared at the sparkling shape, at the shimmering ribbons around it. Once this ribbon had been wrapped around her neck and pulled tight. Once every life inside it had tried to assault her senses at once. Now, with time, and space, and a guide, she saw the beauty emergent from her hundreds of lives.

“Such beauty,” he said to the top of her head. “It makes the years less empty.”

“Are you tired of years?”

He sighed. “I wish to rest. And I never will while my brethren are interfering with the lives of kith. I think some of them are tired, too. Ondra. Abydon, though he would never admit it. Fatigue comes to us all. I just think I uncovered it first. Such a poison, to bring to the courts of gods.”

“Can a god die?”

“Ask Eothas.”

“You’re keeping him away, too, aren’t you.”

“No, but I’m not sorry he’s stuck.”

She wriggled and he loosened his arms. Not enough to let her go. Just enough to turn around. She stared up at him. He looked like a child’s ball, compact, blazing so hard she had to stop. “Will you help me finish my replacement for the gods’ Wheel?”

“All I can do is protect you while you seek your own answer.”

“Will it get you what you want? Can the gods die while kith live?”

“Oh, yes. My interest lies in rest, not in rulership.” He shook his head. “If I grant you solace, will you answer a question honestly for me?”

“I would do it anyway.”

“Aila…let me make this a transaction. They are safer for men like me.” He waved. Vailond felt the dizzy, itchy sensation of something filling in her eye once more. She looked around, loving seeing every side. This close she could see all his face at once.

“Now,” murmured Trask.

“What? Did you want something?”

“Do you trust Durance?”

Vailond frowned. The reminder of some other person, any other person, seemed uncalled for. “Sure, I guess.”

“He served Magran faithfully. You might want to keep him at a distance.”

“He’s a powerful ally.”

“Is he? Perhaps give him the lower priority tasks. Perhaps…don’t invite him to your inner circle.”

Why was this intruding on their time together? “How do you know him so well?”

“I have seen much of Magran’s mind. I have seen what she thought he was made of, and how he passed or failed her trials. I know that he has been touched, more deeply than you—and not by a friend.”

“I understand.”

“Aila?”

He said so much she wanted to hear. “Yes?”

“I cannot service you in any traditional sense of the term.”

Oh. “I d-don’t want you to, I told you.”

”But the day is soon coming when I must come to you in the flesh.”

“Why?”

“My shelter here may be destroyed when you break into the In-Between against my brethren. I will visit you.”

“Are you really made of stone?”

He was leaning over her. “I could lie or I could tell you what you don’t want to hear. I am only what you have seen here. That is all the physical matter I can…take.” His face was close and tan and hard and his eyes were bright and green and unblinking and his hands could set fires with a finger snap. He shook his head. “You would be disappointed if you were there for my coming.”

“I have to be there. It’s my Pillar.”

His head snapped up. “I have to go,” he said in a voice she had never heard before. “Go. Be careful.”

Darkness, like a slap in the face. “Trask, don’t—”

“What?” Aloth’s voice sounded groggy.

Vailond felt herself dragged back to a dark room that was too cool. “Trask…”

Aloth sucked in a breath. “Don’t say that name!”

But when she was with Trask, she had her eye back. “It’s just a word I heard,” she said. “Why?”

Aloth looked furtively around. “Come with me,” he said in a low, hard voice.

She was too startled to object. She threw on a cloak and followed him into the cool night wind.

He led her outside under the stars, where the breeze had already turned chilly. He lit a little hooded lamp and led her through a back door into Caed Nua’s keep, and down a flight of stairs.

“Ydwin’s domain,” he murmured. From the stairway Vailond couldn’t see much of the animancers’ trade. Aloth led her down.

A twisty route brought them to a hallway of smooth fine-cut stone. Aloth brought her to a mahogany door carved with a circle of what looked like alchemical symbols.

“Did you make this?” she said softly.

He smiled. “I drew the specification.” He was fishing out a key. He let her in.

It was a large room, lined with books, ribbed with free-standing bookshelves. Vailond felt nothing in its cold order, except that Aloth was comfortable here.

He walked straight for the opposite wall and started along, hovering fingertips over the spines of the mixed leatherbound volumes. His hand snaked in over one and pressed something. Then, seemingly satisfied, he turned around and left.

“And that did what?” said Vailond, following.

“Come with me.” Down the stone hallway into a different room with a mahogany door holding some geometric design. “Not mine,” he murmured dismissively, and led her into yet another library room. One more shelf. One more touch. A bookcase sank back into the wall and slid aside.

This room was musty, with deep shadows in the corners and sticky wisps along the walls. Aloth let the shelf slide into place, then lit a pale orange light. Nothing skittered away, somewhat to Vailond’s surprise.

“I would keep this better maintained,” said Aloth, “but not even Ydwin knows this is here. Or if she knows, she doesn’t know how to get into it. I will not be the one to show her.”

Vailond looked around. Only one wall here had books. “Smaller collection?” she said.

“I prefer to keep knowledge at the most open safe level. Most subjects are shelved upstairs. Something I learned while dismantling the Leaden Key. Wisdom can never be maintained by concealing the wise.”

“I’m proud of you,” she said softly.

“Yes, well. Hrm. The point is, this chamber has certain qualities that make it difficult to reach. And here is where I keep stories of the Twelfth. Again, courtesy of the Leaden Key.”

“Trask,” she said nervously.

“The name that stuck. But, Vail, you haven’t told me in what context you heard it.”

“Aloth? Sit. Please.” There were two red velvet wing chairs facing one another over a low table that carried complex standing figures in glass.

“You’re being very mysterious,” he said, a smile playing across his lips.

“Sit. Please.” She pushed the table aside and waited. He sat with his customary grace, and stared up at her with his customary keenness. “Stay there.” She folded to her knees and rested a hand on his knee.

All trace of amusement had vanished. “Tell me what’s wrong,” he said.

“Promise me that you’ll forgive me for what I’m about to tell you.”

He shook his head. “I can’t very well promise you forgiveness on a matter I know nothing about.”

“You know me. Please. Promise you’ll forgive me.”

Aloth examined her now, her good eye, her eyepatch, her mouth, the trembling of her breath. “I trust you,” he whispered. “I promise.”

* * *

Aloth’s fingertips pressed his temples.

“And he’s been ‘helping’ you through our work on the soul pillar?”

“What do you know about him? Why are you afraid of his name?”

“It’s as good as a death sentence to speak it in earshot of one of the eleven. They bound him in an unspecified prison before the Engwithans fell. His name is rarely written…and when it is, it’s written with a binding curse.”

“Could I use that on him?”

“I doubt it would be powerful enough from just you and me.”

He thought that gentle prisoner could overpower _him_? “I think we can use him. He’s been cooperative.”

“To what end?”

“Screwing over the gods? Don’t we want that? He wants an end to the rulership of the gods, Aloth, he wants the same thing I do.”

“Which is why he thrusts into your dreams and permits you to speak of him to no one.”

“It—that isn’t—” She didn’t like the verb imagery, that was all. “He didn’t tell me to keep quiet.”

“Why did you listen to him to begin with? Why keep it a secret?”

Vailond hugged herself.

He touched her shoulder. “I will forgive you.” He didn’t sound convinced.

“It would only hurt you.”

His expression froze.

“No, not like that. I will tell you everything.” She took a deep breath. “When I talk to him, he gives me my eye back.”

She felt the sense of falling, the horror of what Aloth couldn’t do. But he opened his mouth and said, “You’re right. That hurt. And you betrayed him? Why? Why now?”

“I never made him any promises. But I’m afraid something will make me choose soon. And I want you to know, it’s you. It will always be you.”

“I have never appreciated what that means before now.” He looked aside. “I seek to compete with a god.” Quieter, “I didn’t know.”

“But you win.”

“Don’t reject him. By all surviving accounts Trask is proud, and violent.”

“He acts so gentle. Like a construct, Aloth.”

“Like all the adra ones that have tried to kill us in the past?”

“The only thing he’s physically done is fix…” she pointed at her eye…“that.”

“Tell me. If he is so benevolent, why didn’t he stop Skaen in the first place?”

“He’s not all-powerful.”

“You don’t know the full extent of his abilities. Perhaps he saw something taken away that he opted not to interfere with because he could seduce you with its restoration. Please, be careful.”

Was that possible? It followed godly reasoning. And Aloth had always, always been her voice of reason. “You know what’s crazy?”

“All of this?”

“I want to defend him. I know I can’t trust him, I knew that from the start, and the way you’re looking at me—I can’t trust him. But part of me wants to. He’s been kind, and he gave me that fantasy.”

“He can give you something none of the rest of us can.” And, an afterthought, “I can believe that he wishes to disadvantage his former brethren. We may use that, but you must be careful. But all this—all this is secondary.”

“To what?”

“To you opening to me when I can’t—provide that. At all.”

“Aloth, I can admit there are things I really, really really, really really really, really, really want. But not if it means hurting you.”

He ran his hands back through his hair, his throat working. “Perhaps—perhaps this is the place and time. I should just be able to say this, but when I look at you I—perhaps this is right.” He fished around in his robe—what was so dear to him he would keep it in his bedclothes?—and reached into an interior pocket. He drew out a little leather pouch, and from the pouch he drew a golden chain and a gold ring with a setting of leaf-shaped green adra pieces around a sparkling cornflower-blue gem.

He held it out to her. “This is for you. It doesn't have to be a commitment, not yet. I wasn’t sure whether you would want it, but…given what you’re giving up by speaking with me, I think it suits you. Keep it hidden on the chain if you need to, I just want you to have it. Wherever you go, you will not go alone.”

“Aloth. I always knew that.” She smiled. “Though you don’t get to take this back.” She reached out and snatched it. She slipped the chain free and set the ring on first one finger than another, moving around to get a good fit. “It’s beautiful.”

“I know you don’t care much about stones, it just…I can’t give you a living thing that you haven’t seen some better specimen of. So I didn’t try.”

The chain slipped like water from her hands. Aloth brought his long-fingered hands in to take the chain and return it to the pouch. His look was lost and brightening at the same time. He touched the ring on her finger. “Comfortable?”

“Very.”

He patted her hand and took a shaky breath. “It’s just a bauble. Given how you feel about your eye…I would expect you to side with him.”

She toyed with the ring, the tiny soul-glows of adra, the bright blue center stone. “Never ever.”

“I never had any reason to believe your fidelity could be mine. Nothing, except that you give it every day.” He touched her hand. “Thank you for coming to me.”

“You’re welcome.”

*

Edér and Sagani followed Aloth and Vailond into the depths of the animancers’ laboratories, into as-yet-unused halls.

Edér seemed relaxed. “If you’re swearing me into a secret brotherhood I’ll warn you, I have a bad record with brothers.”

“We need to keep this private,” said Aloth. “But we also need enough eyes around the complex to determine whether big guns have come in.”

“We expecting something?” said Sagani. “What else would’ve shaken you like this?”

* * *

“So. Trask. Can you fight him in that room of yours?”

“Edér!” Aloth glared.

“I don’t think so,” said Vailond. “There are no weapons there, and he’s a big guy.”

“Bigger’n me?”

“Yes.”

“Huh. Well, that’s hardly fair.”

“Any tactical advantage to be gained from the room?” said Sagani. “You mentioned fire.”

“I can’t fight him. He can give me my entire eye and vision back, and it doesn’t slow him down, not until he starts manipulating the rest of the room.”

“But that does,” said Edér. “Slow him down.”

“Don’t risk it for one strike,” said Aloth. “If he can reshape reality? A moment’s distraction won’t be enough to save her.”

Sagani shook her head. “Do you see us having a choice?” She looked around as if for Itumaak, who had been left upstairs with Malda. “It drives me crazy that none of us can get in there with you.”

Aloth’s eyebrows rose. “If only one person determines who comes in…perhaps ask that one person to summon your allies.”

“I can’t let him know you know about him. He has been gentle, but you’re right, he could kill me without lifting a hand. I think he wants me to believe it’s just me and him.” She looked at the floor. She looked at Aloth’s collar. “It never was, I promise.”

“If we’re deciding something in this room, it’d better be soon,” said Edér. “I don’t trust the gods not to notice that we’ve dropped off the face of Eora.”

“When you’ve laid a snare, there’s nothing you can do but wait for something to take the bait.” Sagani shook her head. “I’m sorry, Vail, but you may have to watch and wait.”

“Just like the bad old squirrel-eating days.”

Sagani grinned. “You loved cooking those monsters.”

“I wish we had a way of getting him out of your head,” said Edér. “He’s a rickety old god, it should be…and he should get over you.”

Vailond peered up at him. “Are you defending my honor, Edér?”

Sagani made a little satisfied noise. “Vail?”

“Yeah?”

“You struck gold in Gilded Vale.”

“I had some lucky moments since then.”

“I know, who wouldn’t love Itumaak in their life?”

Vailond giggled foolishly. She wasn’t carrying it alone. “The god wants the pillars to succeed. I will keep talking to him, if he wants to talk.”

“But you don’t know what he’ll want after,” said Aloth.

“I know,” she said. “If it’s a fight, you’re all invited. Otherwise…maybe he’ll be done.”

“Historically speaking,” said Edér, “that’s a long shot.”

“That’s all right,” said Aloth. He looked at Vailond’s jeweled hand. He looked up, eyes kindling. “He just has to try something in range.”

*

Vailond stood in the yard. She looked at the pillar and its sparkling fountain.

“I don’t like those rings,” she said, pointing at the twelve adra rings that separated from the pillar and arced back.

“I still do not understand what they are for,” said Pallegina.

“Arguably we have a ring for every god.”

“Plus one,” said Maia.

“Yes,” Vailond said hurriedly. “Plus one. I’d like to rip all but that one off. Break the loop. Give the souls a more direct path.” And stop the flow of any god who might be watching.

“Are you sure about this?” said Ydwin. “I don’t think they’re doing any harm.”

“We want to keep the stream of souls controlled, don’t we?”

Maia eyed both Vailond and the pillar. “But the god who put this there…”

“Will have to learn that kith own it now. Take ‘em down.”

*

The forest was more adra than tree, and Vailond kept a weather eye out for Glanfathans who might be around to protect the area. She needed the machine that stood among these pillars.

And found it, at last.

She dismounted and knelt by the control panel. “Xoti.”

“Yes?”

“Life or death. Do not open your lamp.”

The outermost band of the bulbous machine creaked and moved. Anticlockwise, always anticlockwise.

“You used to do this for fun?” Xoti said incredulously.

“For a broad definition of ‘fun,’” grumbled Vailond. “All right, one more.”

*

It was probably too late to be friendly.

Vailond would be glad to bring Xoti, Kana, and Mother on the expedition into Readceras. Edér seemed too much on the nose. She wanted Aloth monitoring correspondence; with anything unrelated to Trask, he had her total confidence. And Trask shouldn’t come up while Vailond was away.

“I don’t know how to say this,” she said to Maia. “I miss you. We stopped gods together.”

“Or made sure one specific god went down with the ship,” Maia said reasonably. “We never stopped Eothas, not on our best day.”

“But we can start again. They say the gods have pledged to stop interfering. The world is open for us.”

“If the gods have stopped interfering, why are all your friends getting directed here?”

“I can’t complain about that. Will you come to Readceras with me?”

“Ishiza should like the variety.”

*

“Pallegina? A word?”

“You deliver that like a commander. Are you happier in that role?”

“Somebody else might screw it up,” said Vailond. “I wanted to talk to you, about…what we found in Aedyr. That isn’t for the Republics or anybody else to go stomping at. But…I miss you. You obviously think you can still get something from Caed Nua and I’m happy that you do. I guess I just want to say…take two weeks to come with me to Readceras and activate some machines?”

“Di verus? Do you expect it will be dangerous?”

“Not with me and you there.”

“I will pack at once.”

Vailond grinned. “Food first. Let’s not forget how I operate.”

*

The three-rail fence closed a stretch of flowery meadow that seemed no different from anything outside.

Sagani grabbed a couple of dual-fist-sized plugs of good from the ground and balanced them on the top rail. She came back to Vailond. “Pick one for me: left or right?”

Vailond stroked the crossbow at her back. “I can’t do this. Not with things that don’t have souls.”

“Oh. You’re using your Watcher powers to compensate.”

“Not brilliant, I know.”

“You are uniquely qualified to make up for that eye. Can you imagine if Hiravias could sense souls at range?”

“I think he would still kill things up close. It’s a calling.”

*

Kana hummed. He whistled. He burst into song.

Vailond, quietly, hummed along.

“He do that often?” said Xoti. “It’s nice.”

Maia touched her horse’s mane and smiled crookedly. “I’m going to scout again. Let me know when he’s done the fifth verse. In fact, wait until you know whether he’s composed a sixth.” She urged her horse onto the road ahead, and soon vanished over a ridge.

“I always make new verses to please her,” Kana said, shaking his head dolefully. “It is a hard thing, having a sister of refined tastes.”

“I can think of worse siblings,” muttered Vailond.

“I was very sorry to hear of that. I don’t know who looks at a woman like you and thinks you’re a means to an end.”

“Peyt Dugauer, ladies and gentlemen. Come on, I think this next one is inside a castle.”

The complex was twice Caed Nua’s size, with walls to match. It was made of a mess of white and gray stones and the battlements seemed to seethe with guards.

“So,” said Vailond, “it’s right in there.”

“Diplomatic approach?” suggested Maia.

“Let’s cross diplomatic and sneaky. Xoti, Mother, with me. Kana, hold back and watch. You two, give me two minutes’ head start then impress the guys at the gate.”

“With what?” said Pallegina.

“Surprise me,” said Vailond.

Xoti and Mother rode up to the front gate. “Hello,” called Xoti. “We’re looking for an Engwithan machine? You might’ve, you know, built a castle over it?”

“Who goes there?” shouted someone from above. “Identify yourself.”

“It’s just me. Xoti.” She looked at Mother. Mother looked like a handsome middle-aged woman with graying hair. “Yep, just me here. Sittin’ outside the gate. We’re looking for shelter.”

The gate came up. Mother gestured wildly at Vailond to join them on foot. Vailond stayed close to Mother, and they passed in together.

Two guards were coming to Xoti’s sides. “Say, how old is this fort, anyway?” she said. “Looks sturdy.”

Vailond stole ahead of the woman and the two guards. The complex had a slight whiff of familiarity…a memory that was not her own. Well, she should be used to that. And even if being a Watcher did nothing, Trask’s harsh ministrations would have told her.

Xoti walked between the guards, past additional patrols, until Vailond hissed and jerked her head to the side. Mother stepped up. And Xoti stepped away from her guards as if she’s never been there.

She waved back toward the gate, and moved on.

“Boring walk,” concluded one. “Let’s get back to the gate.”

“Hey,” yelled Maia. “Hey, is that a working bartizan? My friend and I sell—"

“—anvils,” Pallegina said loudly.

They stared at one another, disgusted.

“She also juggles,” grumbled Maia.

A guard laughed. “Now this we should see!”

*

While they did whatever they were doing, Vailond’s trio turned their steps toward a courtyard that had a stone arch on the far side. Vailond walked first and most obviously…oh, wait, if the cipher weren’t here. Mother’s talent was slightly frightening, but her friendship was true.

The arch led into a stone stairway lit by frozen flames of some sort. Vailond rushed to a huge, round landing that fanned out before an Engwithan machine.

That wasn’t the most interesting part.

Vailond stared. “What…on…Eora?”

The machine was two and a half times a man’s height, bulbous, ugly, purple and gray.

So far, it was like any Engwithan soul turbine.

Then the ribbons started.

There were tiny hooks all up and down the machine. And they carried ribbons. Crepe ribbons, velvet ribbons, silk ribbons, strung up from point to point, from machine to cave floor, from movable girdle to hooks on the floor. Speaking of which. There were concentric arcs on the cave floor: candles, hundreds, all some dark red wax and clearly melted down by repeated use.

“What,” said Vailond.

“Is,” contributed Xoti.

“This,” Mother said coolly. “They were trying to summon souls and they did not know how to make it do so.”

“Or they’re crazy,” said Xoti.

“Possibly.”

Vailond picked her way through and touched the control panel. It seemed to be waiting for her. She pressed the activation sequence as she had half a dozen times before.

The hooks and ribbons sighed and popped free of the surface of the machine as its outmost ring started moving. Something puffed from the machine and the candles guttered and failed. Xoti’s lamp stayed constant.

Vailond eased the rest of the controls into place. The machine hummed. When she opened her senses she could feel the sluggish, trapped soups begin their journey south.

“Good,” she said. “Let’s go.”

When they reached the courtyard, Pallegina and Maia were standing over an anvil that had apparently been brought over to demonstrate their whatever on.

Maia was doing a jig on it. Her smile was the smile of a nascent murderer.

Mother cleared her throat. “It’s time,” she said.

“Ah,” said Pallegina, “it is time for my prayers. Expect us back with an anvil of higher quality than this one.”

All the travelers left together. Kana strolled out from behind a tree. “I really feel like there is no voice that could top what I watched the two of you doing,” he said. “I particularly enjoyed Ishi swooping in to correct your juggling, Maia.”

“Everybody’s a critic,” she said.

Xoti started laughing first. They all joined in.

“Now let us never do that again,” chortled Vailond.

Then, there was only to go home.

*

End of book 3/4


	12. Begin Book 4: The Story So Far

*wordless clapping*

\- Dyrwoodan children’s song, to be clapped every twelfth verse

_Chapters 4 and 8 contain reviews of POE, POE2, and TAR Books 1 and 2._

Woedican cultist: Yes. Yes. This is my time.  
Narrator: After Vailond’s brothers came with news that their mother is dying, Vailond and a picked party accompanied them to the country of Aedyr. They were promptly arrested and plopped in jail.   
Woedican cultist: The Queen-That-Was is still properly revered in some places.  
Narrator: They escaped with the help of Eothasians—  
Eothasian cultist: Yeah!  
Narrator: —and visited Aloth’s mother, then struck north for the Engwithan machines that Trask provided.  
Skaenite cultist: Hsssss  
Narrator: After activating two machines, Vailond’s party reached their destination: a new pillar of luminous adra, a perfect match to the Pillar at Caed Nua. Ydwin left some instruments, and the party came home.  
Woedican cultist: Objection! You didn’t mention the awkward part!  
Narrator: Right. It was a storm-shepherded Serafen who got her home.  
Skaenite culist: Hehe. Heh.  
Woedican cultist: Where…  
Narrator: Durance confessed to building a Godhammer as revenge against the gods. And Vailond confessed Trask’s existence to Aloth. It brought them closer.  
Skaenite cultist: She also circumvented my god’s punishment.  
Narrator: It’s true. Despite her lost eye, Vailond can use her Watcher vision to shoot straight at things with souls. Relatedly, she is coming to find a place for her more politically aligned companions, and it’s a good place.


	13. Pillar and Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Materials hit fans.

_Woedica, Queen-That-Was, mistress of oath_

_Of law and of rulership, either and both_

  * Dyrwoodan children’s song



_Woedica, Woedica, merciless one_

_Give her no promise, be ready to run_

  * Alternate Dyrwoodan children’s song



Aloth walked the halls of Caed Nua with a rising excitement. Ydwin was ready to declare the Pillars operational. The castle was close to total peace. And his thoughts of a future with Vailond, muddied by her ordeal and their emergency…well, he was ready to look at them again.

“Aloth, I heard the strangest thing a few days ago.”

Aloth simultaneously jumped, spun, and reflexively rubbed his temples. Hiravias was standing there looking orange and furry and malicious. “Is this about gobbets?” said Aloth. He had been burned once. “Because if it’s about gobbets I’m not listening.”

“Sort of. It’s about Awakened souls.”

Aloth frowned. “What about them?”

“Well, it seems that my abilities as Autumn Staelgar extend to…nibbling, certain aspects.”

“Really.” Now why hadn’t he thought of that before? “You can remove the Awakened aspect of a soul?”

“That’s about the shape of it. I thought you might be interested. Not that I have anything against Iselmyr, but I of all people should understand that when your life has had its chance it’s time for change.”

Aloth examined the weird swell of distaste and hope. “You can destroy Iselmyr? Not just suppress, but destroy?”

“Is there an echo in here? Yes. After everything, don’t you want to?”

“Ever since she came to me I…I fantasized about it. But she is so fully realized, so accustomed to our…arrangement. I never seriously thought I could remove her.”

“It’s going to taste terrible, but on account of what we’ve been through together, I can do it.”

“No,” said Aloth. “Unless she says otherwise…no.”

“Whew! Saves me some unpleasant effort.” Hiravias grinned. “But I had to ask.”

“It is not lost on me. Thank you.”

“I have another question for you. I’m feeling something around here, something like a storm brewing. And it’s nearby, and it’s going to be bad. Do you have any additional insight?”

“I suspect a god or two is going to cheat soon,” Aloth said honestly. “And I do not know whether we have the defenses.”

“A staelgar and a royal harridan. Isn’t that good?”

“For once I will say it can’t hurt.”

“Huh. You’re serious about this.”

“More than ever.”

“Well then. I know you love your brain, but I hope you’re wrong.”

“Me too.” Of course, he knew, he wasn’t wrong.

*

“Where’s Ydwin?” said Vailond.

“She hasn’t come in yet,” said Bearn. “She could be in the dormitory.”

Of course, Ydwin would not live in the animancers’ dormitories. She had a comfortably appointed room in the Brighthollow. Vailond knew the way.

A pair of pungent lamps supplemented the windowed sunlight. One was set over Ydwin’s desk, where she leaned over a sewing project.

“Your jacket’s three days out of date?” guessed Vailond.

“It got…residue…on it.” She set her needle aside and looked up. “What is it?”

“I don’t understand a lot of what you guys have been up to. How is it going?”

“We’re almost ready for the formal unveiling. Or veiling, as the case may be,” said Ydwin. “You’ve brought us this far.”

“When it’s operating. Will you be staying here?”

Ydwin’s eyes went wide. “Why would I go anywhere else? The future of animancy is here. The luminous adra doesn’t hurt.”

“And does the Watcher of Caed Nua have a job once this is set up?”

Ydwin crossed her belly with one arm and set her other elbow at her waist to swing her fingers to her chin. “Fund me? Keep the installation defended? Push through all the religious nuts? Give a damn? I’m getting what I need, Vailond.”

“Oh. That’s…nice to hear.”

“It’ll be good to stop having to quest for everything,” Ydwin suggested. “Will you be there for the formal start?”

“I have to be, I imagine. It’s my Pillar getting dedicated.”

“How manly.”

“Ydwin? Thank you.”

She gestured vaguely. “It’s been my pleasure. Now. I just have a few more tweaks on the copper overlay.”

“Are you glad I ran into you in Neketaka?”

Ydwin snorted. “An adra stub and a dozen noisy power trippers. At best I incrementally increase a body of knowledge as small as the resource it’s built around. Yes. I’m glad. I almost wish you’d done it sooner.”

“Well, I didn’t have the Pillar back then.”

“Fair.”

“Did you ever get into metaphysics? The gods?”

“No. Should I have?”

“No. That’s fine. See you later.”

*

Aloth found Vailond outside. “Let’s catch up with the Steward, there’s something I want you to see afterward.” He nodded to what appeared to be a random villager, who scurried off.

“What was that?”

“Something I want you to see afterward. Come in.”

Vailond had never gone through one of the Steward’s status reports faster.

The step out the door was always lovely. The various outbuildings within the wall had been rebuilt more square and sturdy than before. The sun shone high, brightening up almost to the doorstep of the keep. Above and behind, the Pillar sprinkled a fountain over the lawn and into the Deep Well.

And on the doorstep, in a blue sash and skirt, Tekēhu was sunning his blue limbs, while Hiravias was standing, arms folded over his chest, looking pleased. There you are!”

“Vail!” boomed Tekēhu. “Your alarmingly violent friend has given me an education in water management!”

“Tekēhu? You’re a water godlike.”

“And an expert in oceans. There is a subtle art to woodlands.”

“Even if they smell funny,” she teased.

Hiravias laughed loudly. “He told you that, too, huh? Some people just don’t appreciate a sublayer of dung.”

Tekēhu made an exaggerated face. “You don’t have to contribute it yourself, as I understand it. Ah, but my fountain will benefit the hanging gardens around the Pillar of Souls. I truly feel I am designing for history.”

“Give me a tour?” said Vailond.

“I knew she’d want to,” Hiravias said, oozing satisfaction.

“Ekera, she seems so busy,” said Tekēhu. “But I am not displeased. Come. Let us start on the animancers’ level.”

“The animancers were not supposed to expand toward the pillar.”

“Er…yes,” said Tekēhu. “That order may have gotten lost.”

“Can you grow trees at them until they give up?”

“You’re the magic-vines lady,” said Hiravias. “Please, let me watch.”

They went downstairs, not at the well where the pillar rose, but to the animancers’ laboratory. Tekēhu hummed cheerfully as he led the way. The floor turned into cells, turned into a tunnel…

Turned into a little natural balcony, covered in moss and flowers, sprinkled from the fountain above.

Vailond stepped out. The sun at its height flickered only on the tallest flowers. The rest was cool, shallow. The adra pillar ran up not three paces away. The edge was a spill of moss, inviting her to peer down.

And down, and down. More and more tiers reached out below beneath the patter of fountain water, some mossy and spangled, some only formations of glowing mushrooms.

“It’s perfect,” said Vailond. “Truly. This is home. Can people come see this?”

“Depends how much you want kicked up,” said Hiravias.

Vailond looked around. “I’ll risk it.”

*

Vailond slept. She found the fireplace, the room, the man. He signaled a smile at her. He summoned her eye. He gave her her mirror.

“We have this down to a system,” she said. They laughed, but she looked at her eyes, too.

“Matters are becoming dangerous,” he said.

Vailond’s attention snapped to his face. “What?”

“Here is where it becomes more than Engwithan machines.” He paced restlessly. “I spent an hour in that chair, just…waiting. Woedica is on the move. I don’t know what she has up her sleeve. Are you at Caed Nua?”

“I am. Safe, right?”

“I need to get out to you.”

“What?”

“I need to pass into the physical world. Woedica’s dreams are not a reasonable battleground.”

“I see. Can you really make a difference as a person?”

“I know her well. And I am not defenseless.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

His jaw dropped. “What?”

The gods themselves had locked him up. Given what horrible people the gods were, the very concept of something that scared and disgusted them…“I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Vail, whatever game this is, there is no time! The gods are gathering against you!”

“And I dealt with them once.”

“Because Berath favored you. You no longer have that luxury. Please, Aila. I can swear myself to your obedience.”

“Are oaths given here binding?”

“Yes.”

“Back in the waking world?”

“If you don’t want to let me out, just say so. But you should go, and you should understand how to go when I am not dismissing you.”

“I just go when I say goodbye.”

“So you never saw the conscious way out. Turn. You’ve seen the forest wall.”

She looked. The room, its gilt-framed walls, melted into a forest of regularly spaced gray trees in blue obscurity. “It just goes on. I don’t trust those trees.”

“Because you know the difference between fantasy and reality. You fear no forest made on Eora.”

“I know.”

“You should try walking out now. Especially if you don’t think you can trust me…you should know how to leave.”

“And the alternative? Are you going to trap me here?”

“There is no trap. The exit is that way. I regret it if you don’t think you can trust me. But doings are afoot, and my brethren are part of it, and, Aila, you have no idea how much I want to go do something.”

“We’ll talk when this is done.”

He returned to the skeletal armchair, sitting like he meant to retire there. “Go on.”

She turned her back. Woedica was out there, and she looked back every few paces as she walked into the forest.

It felt at once like she was walking into a layer of water. Her steps slowed, and she took instinctive gulps of breath. Was this a trap? She didn’t think so. There was little point in turning back. If this was her personal exit, that could only be a good one. He wouldn’t trap her in here.

She looked back. He was still in the chair.

She felt a tickle in her eye. Slowly, sadly, it dissolved. She stared forward with one eye, focusing now just on getting out. She broke through the hanging water’s other side and took a deep breath in the dimness beyond.

With the impression of a velocity she wouldn’t survive, much less comprehend, Trask was there. “You will understand,” he whispered, and she fell into darkness.

*

Vailond sat up as if falling. “Where is he. Where is he!”

Aloth sat upright. “Where is who?”

“Trask. He traveled out with me. Is he here?” She looked wildly around their bedroom.

“Is he in physical form? I haven’t heard anything. He’s _out_?”

“I’m sorry. I tried to stop him.”

“I’m astounded he didn’t kill you. You must still have a role to play in his book.” Aloth worried his lip. “Be careful,” he whispered. “Vail, my love, be careful.”

“There’s no time.” She started struggling into her clothes.

She looked from side to side, double speed because she only had the one eye, but she didn’t see him anywhere. Ydwin walked up looking determined to speak.

“Have you seen a tall man, black hair, very old clothes?”

Ydwin looked startled. “No. I was just about to say, we need to extend this copper net over the pillar.” She gestured toward the coiled copper net.

“Shades of Eothas,” grumbled Vailond.

“That’s the last piece. It’ll slow the flow enough to permit strong souls to comprehend, a little bit, where they’re going.”

“It’s good that works,” said Vailond.

A rumble began, far beneath the earth.

“Run,” said Vailond. “Leave the copper.” She dropped her share and sprinted toward the inn. The others gathered around her.

The great green pillar…split. From inside surged a shape incomprehensibly large, huge, clambering, stretching—an adra dragon, a perfect match to Caracyclia. It crouched and leaped straight up. The pillar clapped shut behind it.

It circled over Caed Nua, casting a shadow like an eclipse, and dove for the courtyard.

Edér, with the focus of a man fated, placed himself before the dragon and reached to force its nearest claw to where he could hit. Less than a second later an ice spike shot through the living adra claw and up toward the sky. Aloth was paying attention.

Vailond heard the distant gate opening. She raised her crossbow and opened her mind to souls. People were streaming in, armed people, furious people—Woedica’s faithful.

That witch never ran out of faithful.

“This is why we needed everyone,” Aloth said loudly. “Let us not disappoint them.”

From then on it was chaos. Pallegina lit her blade and Edér’s in shining blue and they penetrated the adra talons together. The wolves split up, one for each foot. Vailond trained her crossbow on the dragon’s eyes even as it snarled and moved from tormentor to tormentor. Tekēhu lashed spell after spell at the dragon’s snout.

Others were rushing against the Woedicans. The rangers and their animals were there, and Hiravias as staelgar. She couldn’t hear Kana’s singing but she knew his profile. And Xoti raised little whirlwinds of aid and punishment. Good.

Three Woedicans broke free of the melee and came for the dragon. Vailond aimed, but they didn’t attack her. Instead they went after the adra dragon’s belly. Oh. Mother had gotten to them. For the next minute or more, they would serve her purpose faithfully. And oh, did she have a purpose. Vailond returned to her uncomfortable vision of a goddess, and aimed with care.

“Vail!” Vailond barely understood the shout; her eye was for the dragon. “Vail, stay back. This is not your fight.”

Someone moved in the corner of her vision. She looked. It was Trask, as tall and broad here as he had been in the fireplace room. He strode to stand in front of the dragon. He shouted, and his voice was like a dozen stringed instruments.

“Woedica, I presume. You would destroy everything these kith have worked for?”

The wounded dragon abruptly shook all four talons free. She backed up a step and unsteadily lowered her huge spiked head. “Trask. Who let you out?”

“A kind soul. Kindness, you’re familiar with the concept?”

“I don’t believe we ever were. So it was you making the moves in the shadows…you, we all had to start moving pieces to counter. All right, so you’re out. You should enjoy the prospect of killing everyone here.”

“Actually,” said Trask, “I just want you out of the way. These people are rebuilding a world. Do you resent that?”

“They clearly don’t know what to do with it.”

“Perhaps because their public works are constantly getting overrun by possessed dragons?” Trask signaled a smile, which no one but Vailond understood. “Queen-That-Was, your time is up.”

“Come, then. Everyone.” Her voice grew louder and more terrible, harsh enough for her followers at the gate to hear. “Kill the Watcher and her friends—but the stone man is mine.”

“That hasn’t been true for two thousand years, Majesty.” He slathered oil onto the title.

“Vail?” It was Aloth. He balanced blue energy between his hands.

“I have to deal with Woedica,” she said. “Watch my back.”

“Faithfully.”

Woedica swerved her vast wedge-shaped head toward Vailond. Her adra shell must truly have composed most of the interior of the pillar. “You fool. I wanted to watch you die. Trask will have you destroy yourselves!”

The battle at the gate rang with shouts and steel and boomed with gunfire. Woedica spread her wings and snarled.

“Top of the pillar, if you will,” said Trask.

“Don’t waste my time.”

“Go to the top of the pillar. I want you to see the entire battle you’re getting up to.”

Woedica hesitated. Then, snarling, she leaped up and flapped to reach the tip of the empty pillar. She balanced unsteadily on it. Some of her scales had been ripped off entirely.

“There is nothing here,” shrieked the dragon.

“Aila, if you want to shoot her, now’s the time.”

Vailond could sense where in the dragon’s deep chest the soul energy was. It looked unlike any kith soul she had ever seen.

She sighted with her Watcher vision and shot.

“Are you pleased?” said Trask.

“What?”

“Are you pleased. Shooting her.”

“Well, yes.”

“Fine.” He reached one hand up. “Leave,” he intoned in a shout. “Begone. Return to your true form.”

The dragon, wings out, head up…stopped. Vailond saw the brilliance of the soul departing the dragon’s body. It hovered in air, then opened a…rift…and disappeared inside.

“Not a permanent victory,” said Trask, eyeing the great dragon figure now bound to the pillar. “But then, we’re about to ruin more days than just hers.”

“Using what, exactly?” said Vailond. “Operating the pillar won’t make her less angry.”

“You’ll see. You should rest, we have much to talk about.”

“If you can talk about it with me, you can talk about it here.”

“I can’t speak fast enough here. Get some rest. I promise, we will see this matter through.” He closed his eyes and seemed suddenly to lose a world of tension. Shaking, he stood. “Come on,” he whispered. Thirty seconds later, still trembling, he disappeared.

*

Durance was waiting in Vailond’s room.

“Eek,” she said, not quite dignified.

“I did not destroy Woedica,” said Durance.

“I’m aware. Why would you?”

“You of all people must comprehend that.” He paused. “I have created a second Godhammer. The first, commissioned by Magran’s fiery lips to counter Eothas. This one, commissioned by Woedica’s frigid finger to counter Magran.” He smiled. “But I have found an assurance that all the gods will gather in the In-Between very soon. And I will break them all.”

“Woedica didn’t tell you to do that,” said Vailond. “Was there someone else? A man? With green eyes?”

Durance’s larger eye got even larger. “What do you know of the Chained God?”

“He told me he wants to make the gods redundant. So that aligns with what you want. Very well.”

“He told me nothing I didn’t already wish to do. How I have fantasized about giving them all the final laugh! Although…propping up one god on the corpses of others would be a poor ending.”

“You want to get them all together.”

“He will open the portal to the In-Between. If I detonate the Godhammer halfway between worlds I can reach them all.”

“And die yourself.”

“Martyrdom is no longer the distaste it used to be. Vailond, the gods have manipulated all your friends to this place at this time. Do you not wish to strike back?”

“I like all my friends. I can’t stop the gods from dragging them places.”

“One bomb. One conclave. An age of freedom.”

“Not that I’m opposed, but why would you do that?”

“Revenge. And I am at the command of a god I cannot overcome.”

“Which one? We can figure out how to use the bomb on that one.”

“Who else, but the Chained God?”

Vailond felt cold from crown to toe. “Didn’t he prove himself against Woedica?”

“He made his terms clear when he bound me to his will.”

“If you’re doing this…we’ve disagreed. But I trust your judgment and more than that I trust your stubbornness. I won’t interfere with what you’re doing. Can I be there when you let it off?”

“No one walks away from that.”

“Ah. Just…will it take him, too?”

“He has not told me.”

“He’s helped me, he’s…”

“He has spoken to you?”

“He’s trying to help kith.”

“He is trying revenge. A motive I can understand. What I don’t know is how he plans to bring the gods together in the physical world. So long as that is uncertain…the trigger mechanism remains safe in my robes.”

“But when he shows you all the gods…”

“Only one Hammer. But I look forward to it.”

*

Vailond slept, knowing that she had victory and an eye to look forward to.

Trask was bent over his knees on the chair. His hands seemed to be shaking. He looked up and his green eyes looked dull. “There you are,” he said hoarsely. “You are victorious. I would pay a greater price than this to stick it to that bitch. I’ve wanted to since she was a collection of insufferable Engwithan priests.”

“Did you like being out there in the world?”

“The pleasure is…muted.” He stood and signaled a smile. “I am very tired. Come. Sit. Rest.” He put his hand on her shoulder just a little too heavily.

“Trask?”

“Renew yourself.” He walked her to the skeletal armchair where he always started these dreams. “Sit.”

“Why now?” she said.

“Because you’ve squared off against a god. I wouldn’t give you this refreshment for anything less.”

She looked up at his stone face, his adra eyes. She let him push her down.

And panicked. “Wait—”

The contact was like a hot iron. Her flesh clung through her clothes to the weave of the seat, the slats of the back.

“I tuned this chair to your strength exactly,” he said throatily. “For I have paid attention to your talents. I do not wish to exert any more force than necessary. It would be…distressing. I must go, Vailond.”

“’Vailond’?” she echoed.

“Ah. You see, now there is a beginning.” He raised his finger to signal a smile and seemed to think better of it. “And an end. Now, I have an appointment with Durance.”

“No!”

“I promised once I would tell you everything in time. He has built me a Godhammer and I’m going to use it to destroy the accumulation of souls in the In-Between. I would have liked to do this by killing gods, as he thinks he is doing, but I have no serious hope of getting them all in one place, and the alternative is very time-consuming. This is very convenient. When kith souls are exhausted, there will be nothing for the gods to do, and I will finally be able to rest.”

She hurled herself forward into agony in every point of contact stuck to the rigid chair. “You can’t do that!”

He stooped to look her in the eye. “I never lied to you about my motives. I want an end, and I cannot have it while my brethren are making noise toying with you. Only my methods changed. Now, then. You asked once why my brethren locked me away.”

“Because you lied to all of them too?”

“No. Well, not entirely. They condemned my propensity for genocide.”

“They let Ondra through.”

“There used to be six kith races.”

She snarled.

“Now do you understand how difficult this year has been for me? I am Trask, the first. And I had to be a mere man for you. For you I have given up my pride, my dignity, nights of my life I will never get back just to win your trust. I let you laugh at me. And I let you believe that your egalitarian mindset is _tolerable_. I have done everything to pleasure your pride, and only your childish devotion spared me from pleasuring you. Maybe it’s enough that you thought about it—it spares me the effort but marks your soul just the same.”

“My next bolt is for you, you son of a bitch.”

“If your Aloth tries to stop me, for your sake I will merely maim him. I hear eyes are popular.” He straightened and her head was caught too rigidly to follow his movement. “For what it’s worth,” he said, “you’re not culpable for the bomb.”

And he walked away.

*

Edér sat in sight of the grove pavilion, smoking. The oddly smooth-looking human, or aumaua, or whatever he was, seemed to ignore him.

“Well, if it isn’t Mr. Calling Gods Out.” Edér smiled, not entirely pleasantly. “She seemed to know you. Woedica and Vail both.”

The man turned to him and seemed to focus on straightening his back and slowing his breath. “And how close are you to the heart of matters, if you’re just figuring this out?”

There had been so much going on. “Vail tells me in her own time. She always does.”

“Her lover knew me. By reputation, by study…by her confession. Perhaps he is the only one who matters to her.”

“Oh, boy. Are you trying to play the jealousy violin? Because that scratches notes I don’t hear. Where you off to, God-caller?”

“I am a god! You imbecile, I am a god and you will fear me!”

“Edging up the concern scale, I reckon. Where are you off to, god?”

“I can kill you with a thought.”

“Sure, if I’m worth the trouble.” Edér rocked back on his heels and grinned. “But don’t you have someplace to be?”

The god-man snarled, but he was sweating. “Believe me, I would like you to feel the impact of what’s to come. Therefore I leave you. Now.”

The god-man ran into the forest. Edér ran back to the Brighthollow, as fast as he’d ever run in his life. Yes, Vailond and Aloth seemed to know him. They would want to know what the stranger was doing back here.

Everything else could wait.

*

Vailond strained from the back of her head to the backs of her heels. The pain of near separation burned past the furthest reach of her senses. She kept pulling.

Then, weakly, she fell back. She was seated in the armchair upright, formally, and inescapably.

Desperately she looked down at her ring. The golden ring with the adra leaves.

There was a tiny bit of soul energy there. Just a tiny bit. Just enough for the Watcher of Caed Nua to flex her power through. Was this trap crafted for her? The extra energy was just enough for her to shake her own soul loose of the prison.

She lurched out of the chair and curled up on the floor, aching. “Aloth,” she whispered, “you are everything and I think I’ll tell you that.”

She made a brisk circuit of the room, then faced the forest again. “Here goes nothing,” she muttered, and started at a leaping sprint. “Durance! Aloth? Durance, wait!”

She pushed through the watery feeling. She floated in uncharted spaces, the way she sometimes found herself doing. “Durance,” she whispered. Then tried yelling. “Durance!” But this was not her domain, and she had no control. She tried to will herself back to her body. She needed to be awake and she needed to be awake really, really soon. “Durance, damn it!”

“Vail?” It was Aloth. “What’s wrong?”

Vailond spat the words as if afraid she would run out of time. “Durance is gonna Godhammer the souls in the In-Between. We need to go.”

“Why would he…?”

“Because he’s crazy, or because Trask tricked him into it. We need to wake up.”

“Aloth? You just decide to take a nap here?” Xoti’s lamp flashed out. “I don’t get these dreams very often anymore…shouldn’t we all be going home?”

“How?” said Vailond.

“A nick of the sickle may do the trick.” Xoti smiled winsomely. “Practically guaranteed to work.”

Under ordinary circumstances, “practically” wouldn’t be good enough. “Try it.”

A strange feeling, a jerk into her body. Vailond looked around.

Edér clattered into the room. “Your weird man is in the grove. He’s about to do something, wouldn’t say what.”

“Godhammer,” said Vailond. “Everyone. Let’s go.”


	14. The Outcome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A price is paid. Vailond's crew determine their next steps. End of Book 4.

_Berath is Usher and great Pallid Knight_

_Beginning and ending and doors beyond sight_

  * Dyrwoodan children’s song



Aloth was on the pavilion when Durance slunk by. “Durance,” called Aloth. “Vail told me about your plan.”

“Then you know you cannot dissuade me. The gods will burn.”

“A fate I cannot regret. Nevertheless. We have another interest in the destruction of the gods. And he may walk among us soon.”

Seconds later, Trask was in the grove, no one knew how. He was tall and broad-shouldered. His green eyes gleamed in the faint light from the cloudy sky.

He looked neither to the left nor to the right. He walked from the shelter of the forest to Durance in the pavilion. “I have done what I can,” he said. “It’s time.”

Aloth sucked in a breath. “You know each other?”

“Like generals at a summit,” said Durance. “You didn’t think Vailond had sole control of the divine?”

“Who is your friend?” said Trask. Aloth froze.

“His name is Arkemyr,” blustered Durance. “And he has no business in the grove. Let us away, old god. We have blood to spill. You have your gathering of the gods? Someplace where you can open a physical portal?”

“It’s all arranged. I can't stay long, but I rather enjoy being seen." He made a broad backhand and Aloth crumpled. "Ah. Let us hurry.”

Durance waved Aloth away. As he turned he said, “You don’t want to wait for sweet Vailond?”

Trask looked troubled. “Why would I? She’s to benefit as much as anyone else did…but she didn’t do the engineering here. Lead me. The dusk of the gods, awaits.”

They walked together. Durance didn’t have all the strength of his youth, but he made the walk brisk. He was aware of Aloth vanishing back toward Vailond's place. Trask and Durance passed into the forest behind Caed Nua and in toward the deepest tree-shrine. And a little clearing that he had furnished himself. He pulled branches aside.

Durance looked up at the god called Trask, but he did not bow. Never again.

Trask looked at the coffin-sized mechanism Durance had built. “Very well. Finally.”

“Your vengeance,” said Durance. “Long deferred, old man.”

“Finally here, old man. A moment while I open the portal.” He closed his eyes and brought one hand up.

Nothing happened.

“Ah. I haven’t…been, in the physical world, long. Here we go.” He brought his hand up.

Nothing happened.

“Empty air has done me no harm,” Durance said dryly. “I don’t see why I should blow it up.”

He turned while Trask still struggled, sweating. Someone was sprinting through the woods while making relatively little noise. It had to be Vailond.

And it was.

“Durance! Durance! No!”

Durance didn’t try to hide the mechanism. “Magran deserves a taste of my seed.”

“He isn’t opening a portal to gods. He’s opening a portal to the souls in the In-Between.”

Durance wagged his beard, glaring. “But a Godhammer…”

“Would obliterate them. This whole cycle we’ve set up? Gone, because nobody’ll be on it.”

“Grotesque _and_ stubborn. She's lying."

"To me?" said Durance. "Just how well do you imagine you know her?"

Trask had given up on his portal. He made an exaggerated backhand gesture. Vail fell with a heart-rending yelp. The god went back to his efforts to open a portal. When Aloth stepped forward Vailond gasped, " _Don't_." Durance rolled his eyes. If Aloth got himself killed after Durance's deception, well, it was no concern of his. But he was not the point. “Durance, don’t lose your will now,” Trask said sharply. “This girl is no concern of yours.”

“How are you finding every god at once?” said Durance. “Are there fewer you’re really after? One? Zero? Is every collection of souls a god to you?”

“Why ask these questions? You want revenge on the gods, I want revenge on the gods.” He tried again.

“Liar,” spat Vailond. “You liar.”

Trask flexed his hands. “I never told you I was kind, Vailond. And you lapped it up, so certain you were this god’s darling too. I said I wanted to rest, and when the mortals are gone I will have that rest. Nothing has changed, you just didn’t want to see it.”

“One thing wrong, Trask. Everything’s changed.” Vailond looked at Durance. “I see one god here we could remove.”

“Vailond,” said Durance. “Run away. Run to the front of the castle. Don’t fear for me. I’m finished being leashed.”

“Durance…”

“You are transparent, and I know.” Slowly, meditatively, “Fare thee well.”

"Stay back," she said hoarsely. "Run. With me." And Aloth, who had been charging a scepter to kill, nodded. Trask was staring at his hands and hissing curses. Vailond had no idea when he would return to godlike strength after his long immurement.

She ran.

Aloth, furious but controlled in his trust for her capability, joined her. The grove went up in flames behind them. Even as they dropped face first, they heard Trask’s scream above the rumble of the explosion. Durance didn’t make a sound.

*

After the flash came the rumble, and the fall of hundreds of shattered trees. The grove was levelled, the rear towers of Caed Nua blackened. When Vailond staggered back she saw the two dark stains near the center. Aloth squeezed her hand. She checked with her Watcher senses. No trace of souls or portals remained.

So attention turned to the Pillar.

Aumaua on scaffolds raised the copper mesh on long poles and draped it around the pillar, cloaking the structure in a fine copper net up to the very rear talons of the stone dragon. It stretched out over the courtyard like the wrath of the goddess who had brought it there.

“Vail?” said Ydwin, sounding uncommonly excited in a buttoned-up way. “Can you see the flow?”

The souls weren’t just streaming as from one Engwithan machine to another. They slowed within the copper mesh, swirled, dripped from the edge into the In-Between.

“Pregnant women in Aedyr are our best source for confirmation on the other side,” said Ydwin. She brushed imaginary dust from her sleeve. “I’ll visit Caracyclia’s Pillar shortly. I think we did good work.”

Xoti peered up at the column. “I could let this go.” She laughed softly. “I can let this go. Not to Gaun or anybody else…just to our world, to come back to.”

“Is that okay with your teachings?” said Vailond.

“If Gaun is stepping away with the others, I can only serve His ideas. And I will. But I don’t have to save the whole world with my lamp anymore.” She dimpled. “Plus the Pillar is about ten times as manly, wouldn’t you say?”

The rebuilt copper net was stretched over the pillar, from the tip to what they could reach of the base, fifteen levels below the earth.

“Souls will get a choice. A moment of understanding, a moment of wishing. For vocation, for place. Maybe they won’t get exactly what they wanted. But they’ll have the chance.”

The yank felt unfamiliar, from lack of use. Vailond blinked and looked up through the In-Between at the Pallid Knight.

“I knew you could do this,” said the god(dess). “You will have all the time in the world to finalize the mechanics. For now, however, your world no longer relies on my Wheel.” She leaned down. “We are leaving. If our elder brother objects, we will deal with him.”

“Is he not dead?”

“Possibly. You destroyed, not the shell of a person he stepped into, but the manifestation he invested with his will. We eleven can overpower him after such a loss.” The Knight put a fist to her chest. “Fair skies, and winds, and rains, Vailond Dugauer of Caed Nua. Be proud.”

“You know what?” said Vailond. “I am, but not because you told me to. Goodbye.”

*

“Too bad I didn’t store up any pregnant women,” said Vailond. “I…I mean…it isn’t like I could…that’s nine months. Yes. I was talking about some other pregnant women.”

“Do we need to talk?” Aloth said in genuine puzzlement.

“Do you want to?”

“Always.”

“There are pregnant women here,” said Mother. “They have come to be near the Pillar.”

“That’s brave,” muttered Vailond.

“They believe in what you have done. As do I.”

“I can’t just stand around waiting,” said Vailond. “Mother, will you send someone when you get called to a woman in labor?”

“I can.”

“There’s always the other side,” said Edér. “Uh, people leaving, so to speak.”

“Ydwin would notice if someone does. Wouldn’t you?”

“I couldn’t tell you where the soul goes.”

“Great. I sit down and Watch for a while.”

“Not alone,” said Aloth.

“You know what? After every stupid god action, we did it. The friendly ones got the group where it needed to be.”

“Do you think they knew about Trask’s intervention?” said Aloth.

“You know they’d never tell us.”

“But we were together for the crisis,” said Hiravias. “And I for one won’t question that too much.”

“Wael follower?” murmured Aloth. “For shame.”

“Well, I think it’s goodbye now.”

“I’m keeping the board with all the gods and people tiles,” said Vailond. “I may varnish it in place. The last board layout. I can put it on display in the dankest, dustiest corner of the basement, and anybody who finds it will just wonder what it meant.”

*

In the quiet, Vailond had questions for Aloth about the adra dragon. About history, and whether Woedica could do it again. He explained. He was good like that.

And so three days passed. Caed Nua boiled with activity. Craftsmen, merchants, pilgrims. Vailond spent a fair amount of time in the blasted north grove with Tyrhos and Malda. Her closest friends knew to find her there.

It was Aloth alone who came to where she was tooling leather with a heavy steel nail. Tyrhos raised his shaggy head, more white than gray now. He regarded Aloth with solemn blue eyes.

“Hi,” said Vailond without looking up.

“Hello,” said Aloth. “How are you today?”

“Missing privacy,” she said, looking up. She smiled to soften it. “You don’t count.”

“Is that praise?”

“If you could see inside my head you’d be embarrassed how much of it is praising you.”

He smiled. He came to kneel beside her. “Have you seen him again?”

“No. I’ll tell you.”

“I see. Vail…I had something made for you.”

She had to smile. “You don’t have to give me more jewelry, but I’ll wear it if you want me to.”

“Not exactly.” He opened a little velvet box. Cushioned inside was a little glass sphere, milky white, with a ring of blue gems on one side surrounding a gleaming black circle.

“I opted not to have it made from adra. I made sure they matched your eye color. I thought it would make you more comfortable.”

“Give it here,” she rasped.

“I can put it in.”

“Do you really want to?”

“It’s something I can do.”

She held still. “If you want.”

He raised the glass sphere. He touched her sagging eyelid with infinite care. He slipped the glass in and thumbed it until it was well seated.

“How does it look?” she said shyly.

“It looks like you don’t need an eyepatch if you don’t want it.”

It was like her dream illusions, only, the person she loved was here and he could see it. Tears were coming up, good ones. She blinked around it feeling right. “Thank you.”

“Do you think you can be happy now?” he said diffidently.

“I was happy every minute I was with you.” She squeezed his hand. “I have everything I need now. What about you?”

“Catastrophic world events seem to follow you around. It seems reasonable to take back what we can.”

“So we’re taking that?”

He kissed her. That was all.

*

Edér was sitting outside the hold, legs stretched in front of him, hand occupied with his pipe. Fragrant smoke gave the scene the subtlest smudge. Bearn beside him didn’t seem to mind. One could get used to anything.

Vailond waved. “Edér. The world’s your mussel.”

“Oyster.”

“What?”

“The world’s my oyster.”

“If you’re in salt water, I guess.”

Edér chuckled. “I was thinking of going back to Hasongo. It’s late in the season but we can bring enough to live on.”

“I’m going to Defiance Bay next year to keep studying animancy,” said Bearn. “Nobody’s going to believe I got Awakened.”

“Be careful. Protect Hiravias’s name.”

“Oh. Yeah.”

“He’s got enough to worry about being an Autumn Staelgar without having to deal with being known as the Autumn Staelgar.”

Bearn looked thoughtful. “Ydwin already promised to send me the next book in the series I’ve been reading.”

“Well, good,” said Edér. “I think. No trying animancy on the livestock. Or me.”

“Yessir.”

And that seemed to be nearing the end. “Edér, is there anything Caed Nua can do for you?”

“A roof over our heads for a week while we pull together the stuff we’ll need for a late-summer arrival…that’d be welcome. And we should talk about what happened.”

“I would like that. Truly.” She looked around. “Where are Effort and Consideration?”

“Oh, probably tussling with Malda. Those three are good for each other. They’re growing so fast…just yesterday Effort got my boot from my room, and Consideration started trying to pull it back to put it away…they were just about stuck until Malda shot in and that boot went right out the door.”

“It does look…like a veteran,” Vailond said dubiously, eyeing his savaged leather.

“Well, what else are puppies for. Vail…”

“Yes?”

“You did good here. Speaking as a former mayor. You built up a safe place, besides the ravening adra goddess. Are you going to stay?”

“Next summer I’m going out on the water for a month or so.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad. I’ll save all the really heavy house maintenance for when you’re there to help.”

“It does amaze me how your chores are non-urgent right until some other sturdy fool comes along.”

“Why haul alone if you don’t have to?” He grinned. “One more thing, are you leaving it where it is with Aloth?”

“Where it is? Um, yes.”

“He thinks you don’t want a wedding or a kid. If I were you I’d tell him he’s wrong, sooner rather than later.”

“Just because I freak out every time someone mentions it…” Vailond scowled at Edér’s grin. “Fine. I’ll talk to him.”

“That’s all I can ask. All right, I’m not hugging you ‘til it’s time to say goodbye, and I’ve got things to pack.”

“May no god whatsoever interfere with your path.”

“Ominous, but appreciated.”

A yelp sounded some yards away. Edér and Vailond looked to see Malda tussling with Consideration while Effort bounded around them, crying. Malda got a hard bite on the back of Consideration’s neck and she dragged him to Vailond’s boots, then sat up and whined.

“Aw. Malda. I can’t keep them.”

Malda whined piteously. Consideration lay as if stricken. Effort nosed Consideration, then sat and stared up at Vailond.

Vailond addressed Malda and her whine. “You’ll see them again. I promise.”

“Aw.” Edér crouched and beckoned his two to within scratching distance. “It’s all right. You’ve gotta finish growing, and won’t that be a surprise? I wonder if the smell stays recognizable.”

Vailond ruffled the fur behind Malda’s ears. “We won’t be apart all that long.”

“Yeah?” said Edér. “Good.”

*

Mother hid her presence when she ate, but she was not grieving.

Vailond strolled out with her. “Everything all right?”

“This world has become overwhelming,” Mother said softly. “And with the Pillar, it will not grow less overwhelming.”

“I’m sorry,” said Vailond. They were walking out in the long evening shadow of the pillar. “I’m sorry. Would you like to go back to Dyrford?”

Mother’s laugh was soft and silvery, like the echoes of dancing chimes. “This is where I need to be. Think of birthing so close to the source. Your child will have the strongest soul possible.”

“My…? What? Am I having one?”

Mother found something interesting to look at near Vailond’s hip. “I do not know yet. A slip of the tongue.”

“I’m used to you being just physically sneaky. Conversationally still bugs me.”

“I may bring your child someday, Vailond. The castle sings. And there will be others, here for a blessing.”

“So that means I should build more rooms in the outside inn?”

Mother smiled, a smile that contained the solemn middle-aged woman and the aging peasant in equal dignity. “A few,” she said. “Here. Let me show you something.”

“Uh, sure.”

When Mother reached out Vailond heard the chimes on her wrist. It was a good sound, the right sound. The ritual of a midwife. Someone who would take her place in this great cycle.

Mother touched Vailond’s forehead.

She was somewhere else. On her back, in stabbing pain. She felt wet and helpless. But Mother was there, doing something with a knife and then handing Vailond a squirming, red, helpless bundle. Vailond had seen this scene a thousand times as a Watcher, but it had never been hers. This felt like a promise sealed in vision.

The image dissolved. Vailond was standing, and cool, and dry, and mostly unhurt. “It is only a prediction,” Mother said softly. “But a likely one.”

“If Aloth really wants to.”

“He thought of it in Sun-in-Shadow, when you prepared to face Thaos.”

“No. Did he?”

“He can imagine nothing without tracing out its likely consequences. And he imagined you. At the time, I did not think you returned it.”

“Hidden from a cipher. Good work, me.”

“I did not intervene.” Mother smiled. “But I will be there for your next milestones.”

*

Vailond stared up at the pillar fountain. It fell in strands of shining droplets through the autumn sunlight into the burgeoning trees of the Deep Well’s first layer. Someone had already bound these trees to curl back on themselves so they didn’t overshadow the lower layers. Now they had shoots coming up past ground level, growing like they were paid for it.

She came in closer. No more pillar flashes. No more god meddling. She stood under the finest mist of the fountain, enjoying the cool water beading on her forehead and neck, and peered down into the exposed layers of the Deep well. Water from the fountain glistened its way onto layer after layer, and flowers and mosses grew where the droplets fell. It had the variety of an expert in local life and the asymmetrical harmony of an artist.

“You realize you spent the entirety of your Deadfire adventure doing your best to stay dry.” It was Tekēhu, and he smiled when he joined her.

“The weather’s still kinda hot here,” said Vailond. “And fresh water’s better anyway.”

Tekēhu looked serious. “Yes, should you need to lick yourself clean, the fresh water is much preferable.”

His head-worms were twining straight upward as if to climb up the water to its source. Vailond grinned at them but opted to move on. “This is really beautiful. I think it’s my favorite part of the project.”

“Ekera, your one-eyed friend helped acclimate me to the Dyrwood’s living things.”

“I always forget just how much lore he knows. He’d be a better student than me in a regular school.”

“But why would you need to know more than you already do?” His eyes danced.

“Oh, hush. I got the lazy career path, I know.”

“Surviving on three continents? Not so easy as one might expect.”

“You’re welcome to stay on this one.”

“Alas, the sea calls me, as I believe it always will. You are forever welcome on any ship I sail on.”

“I think I will. Maybe early next year, when things are settled. The sea…it’s still here, inside me. Maybe that means I should go.”

His silver eyes sparkled. “Maybe it does. The water heals many wounds, and assuming you do not wish to bathe in this garden, you know my bathhouse is superior to copper cups.”

“You just hate the smell of trees.”

“A grove on a verdant beach is one thing, but you don’t even have sand!”

Vailond laughed. “We’ll meet again.”

“Fly your standard high, my friend.”

*

“I wish to know more of this man who walked off with Durance. No one recognized him, and yet a stranger surely could not have gotten as far as the grove without being challenged. By you most of all.”

Vailond held still. “I don’t know if you would believe me. It’s a secret I can’t share.”

“But what?” Kana said eagerly. “I have studied the Engwithans for years, I am no stranger to secrets.”

“But you reveal them. Wael would be so disappointed.”

“Wael no longer has a place in this world. I promise to be a good and discreet pupil.”

She got to shape her account of Trask. She made herself brave and him slimy. She did not mention physical contact. It was a good story, the kind she would want her children to hear. Maybe they would.

“Where are you going next?” said Vailond. “There’s still a lot of lore, even if the gods aren’t making it.”

“I wish to stay. I wish to explore the tales of the people under the Pillar. I wish to hear our souls.”

“If I jumped on the wrong engine I might be able to arrange that.”

Kana chuckled. “No need. I will speak with the people who pass through. And you, you will tell me your dreams when they whisper to you of the souls of kith.”

“Will you write it all down?”

“May I?”

“You’re the historian. Maybe it’ll do someone some good.” Vailond, suddenly anxious, set her fists on her hips. “Are you happy? With how this turned out?”

“With souls returning to the cycle and escaping the attentions of a deranged god? Very happy.”

“Well, good.”

*

Hiravias was sitting at his campfire on the pavilion next to the blasted forest, gnawing on something red. He took the blob out of his mouth and waved with his free hand. “Good watch, Watcher?”

“We got through this,” she said. “Still hungry?”

“A condition of existing, my friend. Though, the soul hunger has become quiet.”

“Wait. Soul hunger?”

Hiravias froze as if caught. Then he threw his head back and laughed loud. “Forget I said anything. The staelgar within sometimes gets restless. I have never been forced to indulge it, though I may have wanted to.”

“You’re welcome in what’s left of the grove.”

“Inside walls? I think not. My clan still has a place at its fires for me, and I think I’ve chewed up enough history for the time being. Besides, ash isn’t my color.”

“I’ll replant. No hard feelings about my punching every Engwithan machine I ever heard of?”

“It’s not like we were using them. Some Glanfathans may even come to see what the Pillar is about.”

“Want to explain it?”

Hiravias cackled. “You’ll be here to deal with that hassle.”

“Thanks. For everything.”

“When a woman works as hard as you did to help me on my path, it seems reasonable for me to help her on hers.”

“Are you going to miss Galawain?”

“Who else should I dedicate my hunts to?”

“I don’t know, I’ll do you if you do me.”

“Your modesty shines.”

“No, really. Here’s for the Autumn Staelgar…and here’s for my friend.”

He reached out and took her forearm in a firm clasp. Any prey animal would struggle with that grip. She returned it, for a brief moment it seemed like they would cut off one another’s circulation, and then they let go.

*

“How does it feel?”

Vailond was re-lacing her boot in the Pillar’s shadow. She peered up at Pallegina, who had clearly dressed to impress someone. Someone who liked armor. “My shoelace? Fine, thanks.”

“You have become a political entity,” said Pallegina. “I know this does not please you. But you must recognize that it is true.” She offered a hand, but Vailond stood on her own power. “You must protect this place now. Have you considered how you will do so?”

“I’ve got it. I can handle this alone.”

“A solution for this year, perhaps this decade.” There was something about Pallegina, a disciplined calm that could allow the passage of kindness. “Against individuals, against those of modest funding. But the Pillars will invite fools. Have you considered how to discourage them in the centuries to come?”

Vailond swallowed hard. “No. Not exactly.”

“Speak with Aloth. Perhaps you have not planned, but I am convinced he has. And to his thoughts, add this: I wish to help train your defenders. Consider me on loan from the Republics, should you desire a trainer for a new order.”

“The Republics will still want to control it. It’s too big for a political organization to care for, but they’re going to try.”

“All factions are political organizations. Including your own. You have acquitted yourself well, but experts would be glad to take the burden.”

“In something more continuous than me and friends being local.”

Pallegina nodded thoughtfully. “Will you suffer me to stay?”

“Who’s suffering?”

“Allow. Will you allow me to stay. Among your friends.”

“Of course you can. If I’m a faction, maybe I need to accept diplomats.”

“That is fair. I can serve the Republics here. And…see you, and the others. I know the ducs will encourage me to stay.”

“Now that I’m operating, I think that’s fine. No. I think it’s fine in any case. Stay.”

*

“So how was it,” said Vailond, “seeing everyone?”

Sagani shook her head. “I can’t believe Durance is gone. The first Godhammer didn’t take him down…or Eothas, not for long. So what are the odds either target survived this time?”

“Trask was weakened even before the Godhammer. It’s going to take him a long time, and I suspect that a bored god might smack him just to have something to do.”

“In the meantime?” said Sagani. “I’ve been away from home too long.”

“You’re good for us. Probably means you’re good for your family, too.”

“It was nice to see Tyrhos’s puppies. Makes me want to get Itumaak settled when I get back.”

“You don’t have to go south alone.”

“Actually,” said Xoti, “I was going to go with her. They appreciate more hands, come winter.”

“And the Deadfire’s just a ship away,” said Sagani.

“And I’m going at least as far,” said Maia. “With luck Rauatai sends me right back here.”

“I’d like that,” said Vailond. “I don’t hold diplomatic grudges if they don’t. And I’m ready to share.”

“So that’s settled.” Maia stared at the middle distance, then looked satisfied. “Good.”

“I’ll expect you, then. I need some rest. But you might see me out there, sometime next year.”

“I had the impression you liked these forests.”

I’m split up and scattered, Maia. I love Caed Nua, and I even kind of like the Aedyran jungles I grew up with. And I love the _Defiant_.”

“Nice to have a home everywhere you go.”

Vailond smiled. “I just wanted to shoot and eat things.”

“Who knew those life skills would get you through?”

*

“Ydwin,” said Vailond, “you saved the world.”

Ydwin looked up from her work. More of her shirt was red than before. “Not to put too fine a point on it…yes.” There was satisfaction in every syllable.

“You’re welcome to stay as long as you like. I realize…now that it’s set up, you might not find it as interesting.”

Her red eyes widened. “Is that a joke? I’ve barely laid out the first set of readings from the completed Pillar. It’s going to take years to understand the first ten seconds. I have work to do in Aedyr, but this is where I intend to be when that’s done. You’re not planning on losing everyone who achieved this, are you?”

“No. I came to ask you to stay.”

A small smile. “Just try getting rid of me. Oh, and if you spot any linen in some cool blue or green coming through our merchants, let me know. It’s for a project.”

Animancy or tailoring, Vailond didn’t know, and she kind of liked the ambiguity.

*

The courier left Serafen on the Dunnage street before Serafen’s facial expression had time to change. It was just surprise. It wasn’t incriminating. He saved the letter for when he was on the _Soheina_. It rasped and scratched inside his shirt all the way to the taffrail.

He read:

_Serafen,_

_You helped save the world. Please use this as leverage in your next salary negotiation._

_I guess you and I don’t have to say much. Hold out for the best lady in every port, will you? I hate to think about you settling for less._

_Your friend, always,_

_V._

Breezy, sweet, and final. Her tendernesses never failed to surprise him. He stowed the letter back in his shirt and looked out to sea, thinking about finding another crew.

“One of your girlfriends?” It was Captain Agarath, looking amused.

“Aye. The alarming one.”

“You made a good show when she was aboard.”

“It won’t do to show weakness. She gets mushy.”

“There are worse modes for a lover.” Agarath looked out at the horizon, as if to spot Serafen’s focus. “Are you over her?”

“Oh, aye. I know better than to drop anchor in a port where no one’s trading. Besides, I’ve been neglecting Tikawara.”

“That woman is twice your size.”

“That much more terrain to plow.”

“If she should write me. Do you want to know?”

Serafen considered it. Not about the Tikawara lass, but about the woman he was over. “No, Cap. Keep it to yourself.” He would be on a new ship anyway.

*

Snug in bed, Vailond raised her bejeweled finger. “Y’know I borrowed the energy in the adra here to escape the dream room? Even there, you were looking out for me.”

Aloth didn’t bother looking at the ring. “Then I’m glad I gave it to you when I did.”

“You saved my life. You seem to do that as easily as sneezing.”

“And you seem to want it, Vail. At least I can be of some use.”

“No. You’re not useful to me.”

Aloth’s pale eyes widened. “What?” he said forlornly.

“You. You’re not useful to me. You are fun, and strong, and clever…but I do not and can never use you. Understood?”

“Clearly.”

“What about everything else? I feel like I’ll have to stage the destruction of the world to get everybody back together.”

“I think a written invitation might do as well.”

“Maybe.” She leaned into his chest. “How are you? Are you okay with everyone scattering?”

“That is the current of the world. I will be glad to see them back, but if they go to their lives, who am I to argue?”

“What happens to us now? Are you happy at Caed Nua?”

“I have never known it in peace. I want to stay at your side. I…” he squeezed his eyes shut…“am not ready to formalize more right now.”

“Okay.”

His eyes opened. “Okay?”

“You have been my rock since Gilded Vale. I don’t need to rush that.”

He put his hands to either side of her head. He fanned his fingers through her hair over and behind her ears. He kissed her forehead, once, lightly but lingeringly. “You are the woman for me,” he murmured.

“Just tell me how fast to go. I want all the usual things…in time.”

“Ennui and petty domestic disputes standing in for crippling insecurities?”

“I was thinking marriage and maybe little ones, but if you want petty disputes I can come up with something.”

His eyes were round. “Don’t. D-did you really just say that?”

She kissed his nose. “We don’t have to talk about it now, love. But I’m keeping your ring.”

*

Kith had a cycle. The death of a soul was no longer final, and level heads held the locations of the transition points. Better yet, the gods had shut up.

Vailond stayed in her room in the Brighthollow inn, and gods did not come knocking. She spent time with her friends. Slowly, carefully, she began to speak of the outlines of a long-term relationship. Slowly, carefully, Aloth got used to the idea. When they married, five happy years later, it was under the trees of the replanted grove. And many people from around Eora attended. The affianced asked for no gifts, because they already had what they needed. One or two bundles appeared from nowhere without a card anyway. Vailond and Aloth had their honeymoon on board the _Defiant_ in unshakable nerve. They always had.

* * *

In some versions of this story, after Vailond’s wedding she receives an unlabeled package containing an ivory-handled hand mirror.

* * *

_\- fin -_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's it! A thousand thanks to the makers of Pillars of Eternity for providing such a rich setting to play in. Vail has been fun and I don't think we've seen the last of her in short fiction, but for today, she gets to rest with her friends.


End file.
